Police are desperately searching for a tiger spotted in a town just outside of Paris after a woman spotted the wild cat at a supermarket parking lot.
"My wife saw it this morning," Jean-Baptiste Berdeaux told AFP. "She didn't get out of the car and called me to say 'I think I saw a lynx'." She snapped a picture of the animal and then called the authorities. Since then other residents of the town have come forward to say they too had seen the cat roaming the city of Montevrain.
City officials are advising residents to stay indoors, and children at school will be kept inside.
Authorities have roped off a woodland area in an effort to contain the tiger after following its tracks, and teams of marksmen with tranquilizers and a helicopter have been brought in, equipped with thermal cameras. They hope to capture the tiger alive.
"If it's possible, we'll try and put it to sleep," police told AFP. "If it becomes dangerous or aggressive, the order will be given to kill it."
PETA is concerned for the animal's safety. In a statement to AFP, the animal rights group called for authorities to "show restraint and compassion in dealing with this tiger on the loose."
"This situation, however upsetting, is entirely preventable and should serve as a wake-up call to the public about the perils of keeping wild animals in captivity," PETA says.
Specialists have determined that the cat is a young tiger, but nobody is quite sure where the animal came from. Montevrain isn't too far from Disneyland Paris, but the park says they have no tigers. A big-cat wildlife park near the city and a circus that recently passed through town are two other possibilities being considered, but so far no tiger has been reported missing.
Photo: Ville de Montevrain Facebook
