The two men walked away from the farm at Ngwala prison in Mbeya region and headed into a nearby forest where they came face to face with two lions.

They clambered up a tree, but the lions waited for them at the bottom.

A truck frightened the lions off and stopped for the two escapees who asked for a ride back to prison.

Lethal lions

The escaped convicts appear to have had a lucky escape, as lions and leopards have killed more than 20 people in southern Tanzania this year, largely because a severe drought has deprived them of their normal fare of small wildlife.

The animals responsible for the attacks on humans do not come from official game reserves but are simply living wild.

Game scouts have been sent to the area to hunt them down.

"Experience has shown that once a lion has a taste of human blood, the beast will come back for more and it must be eliminated," said Natural Resources and Tourism Minister, Zakia Meghji