False alarm issued for 'escaped' lions, tigers and jaguar that never their left German zoo cages

Five big cats that were thought to have escaped a zoo in Germany and sparked a massive police search and warnings, never actually escaped.

Police near the city of Luenebach, in the country's west, believed two lions, two tigers and a jaguar had escaped their enclosures at a zoo that had been flooded.

Following the initial alert, police began a widespread search for the animals and warned residents to stay indoors.

Hours later, police confirmed that those animals had, in fact, never left their cages.

The mayor of the nearby town of Arzfeld, Andrews Kruppert, later said the confusion arose because volunteers who had been using a drone were unable to find the big cats in their enclosures and thought they had gotten out.

Despite the false alarm, a bear that had escaped its cage during the flooding that washed away its enclosure's fences, was found and shot dead.

The bear escaped from the 30-hectare (75-acre) zoo grounds and ran into the rolling hills of the Eifel region before it was shot.

Western Germany has seen several strong storms in recent days, causing flash floods.

With AP.