The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office said the woman “was able to physically remove her son” from the animal’s grip, sustaining injuries to her hands and legs. Her son was transferred to a hospital in Denver on Saturday, the sheriff’s office said.

Image The carcass of the mountain lion that attacked a 5-year-old boy near Aspen, Colo., on Friday night. Credit Pitkin County Sheriff's Office

The police did not say if the injuries sustained by the mother and her child were caused by scratches or bites. The Aspen Times reported on Saturday that the animal had bitten the child.

“She was able to pry the cat’s jaws open,” Michael Buglione, a sheriff’s deputy, told the paper. “She’s a hero.”

The authorities learned of the attack when the boy’s father called 911 as he drove his son to Aspen Valley Hospital on Friday, the sheriff’s office said. The attack happened in an unincorporated area of Pitkin County roughly 10 miles outside Aspen.

The sheriff’s office said deputies responded to the family’s home, along with a United States Forest Service officer, shortly after receiving the father’s 911 call. The Forest Service officer killed a mountain lion in the front yard.

Officers from Colorado Parks and Wildlife examined the dead mountain lion and searched for a second lion that had been reported in the area earlier that day.