A man who fought off a mountain lion while out running in Colorado has described the life-or-death struggle for the first time.

31-year-old Travis Kauffman said the cougar locked on to his wrist and clawed at his face and neck during the three-minute ordeal.

He said he eventually killed the cat - whose weight was estimated at between 16kg and 18kg - by standing on its neck and choking it.

The attack left him needing 28 stitches to his face and neck.

In a news conference, Mr Kauffman said he was running alone in the mountains west of Fort Collins on February 4th when he heard pine needles rustling behind him.

Cougar

"I turned around and just was pretty bummed out to see a mountain lion chasing after me," he said.

He said he attempted to scare it off by throwing his hand in the air and shouting - but it " just kept running and lunged at me."

"It was going toward my face so I threw up my hands to block my face at which point it grabbed on to my hand and wrist and from there it started to claw at my face and neck," he said.

"That is when my fear response turned into more of a fight response - because I realised how close it was getting to my eyes and it got a claw in my lip."

File photo of a mountain lion lounging in a cottonwood tree

Life or death

He said the pair tumbled off the running trail and "kind of had a little wrestling match" further down the hill.

"I was able to get on top of it and pins its back legs so I didn't get any soft tissue scratched out in my nether regions and at that point I was grabbing around for sticks," he said.

"I only had my left hand free; my right hand was still locked in its jaws. I tried to get at its neck to see if I could stab it to get it to release. That wasn't working - the sticks were breaking.

"So then I picked up a rock that I had seen kind of near us. It was pretty heavy and it was kind of hard to wield and I tried to give it a few bashes in the back of the head but unfortunately I had kind of a tough time swinging it with my arm still locked into the cats jaws."

Struggle

When the rock failed to deter the animal, Mr Kauffman said he knew "I was probably going to have to do something a little more drastic."

"Then I was able to kind of shift my weight and get a foot on its neck," he said.

"At that point I stepped on its neck with my right foot and just slowly after a few minutes I thought I would be getting close and then it would start thrashing again.

"I'd say another couple of minutes later it finally stopped moving and its jaws opened and I was able to scramble back up the hill and get the heck out of dodge."

Mountain lion

The 31-year-old, who is 5ft 10in and weighs about 11 stone said he will "never be able to live up" to his new-found reputation, adding: "The story is bigger than my puny form."

After killing the animal, Mr Kauffman ran back down the trail, where he met other runners who took him to hospital.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers retrieved the dead cat and said their investigations confirmed Mr Kauffman's account.

He was the 22nd person to be attacked by a mountain lion in Colorado since 1990. Three of the attacks were fatal.