Lion locked in back of a car in Dubai goes viral

It's never a comfortable experience getting stuck in a traffic jam on a scorching hot day.

But one foolhardy motorist had the added stress of having to wait out the delay while giving a lift to a lion.

The driver was caught on camera with the big cat prowling around the boot of a Nissan Armada.

A stunned passenger in the car behind recorded the bizarre incident on a camera phone.

The footage of the extraordinary spectacle has gone viral, being viewed nearly 50,000 times, since being uploaded to youtube earlier this week.

In the short clip, the large lion appears to be looking for a more comfortable position to wait out a long tailback in the sweltering midday heat.

The lion does not appear to be confined to a cage and the driver is not protected behind any bars.

The roads of the United Arab Emirates are no stranger to peculiar sights.

A photograph of a tiger leaning out of the passenger window of a top of the line Range Rover also became an internet hit.

It's not clear as to why the owners of the big cat were driving along it in the car, and the blacked-out windows meant there was no way to see if they were enjoying themselves.