A Belgian woman is recovering in hospital after she was attacked by a lion at Midrand's Lion Park Zoo.

The 24-year-old trainee put her arm through the enclosure fence on Sunday afternoon to stroke the lioness, which bit her upper arm.

She was with an assistant who was feeding the lion in the breeding section.

"There are no bones broken; it is only a flesh bite," said the park's curator Eddy van Eck.