Police
and firefighters were desperately hunting for a tiger on the loose near Paris
Thursday after a local resident spotted the fearsome animal in a car park and
sounded the alert, authorities said, Yahoo news reports citing AFP.
Backed up
by a helicopter overhead, firefighters armed with tranquilising guns combed the
area in the Seine-et-Marne district near the French capital.
Authorities
ordered residents to stay inside and children were kept at school, as several
people came forward saying they had seen the tiger on the prowl.
"We
have been running after it since this morning, police officers are trying to
intercept it," a police source said.
Town hall
official Cedric Tartaud-Gineste told AFP: "We are calling on inhabitants
to be careful, not to leave their houses and to stay in their vehicles."
"Anyone
who sees the tiger should call the police or the fire service," he added.
He said that
a security perimetre covering an area about the size of four or five football
pitches had been set up around a wooded area near the small town of Montevrain,
some 40 kilometres (25 miles) east of Paris.
A woman
spotted the animal in a supermarket car park in Montevrain on Thursday morning.
"My
wife saw it this morning," Jean-Baptiste Berdeaux, who manages the
Intermarche supermarket, told AFP.
"She
didn't get out of the car and called me to say 'I think I saw a lynx'," he
said, adding she took a photo of the animal and the couple then alerted nearby
police officers.
An AFP
reporter on the scene saw a dozen or so fire engines and police vehicles lined
up near the supermarket.
Authorities
said they were hoping to catch the animal alive.
"If it's
possible, we'll try and put it to sleep. If it becomes dangerous or aggressive,
the order will be given to kill it," police said.
It is as
yet unclear where the tiger comes from.
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