Video appears to show Berlin 'lioness' as search continues
Video has emerged purporting to show a suspected lioness spotted on the outskirts of Berlin, Germany.
Police were alerted to the animal in Kleinmachnow, just outside Berlin's city limits, about midnight on Thursday (Thursday morning AEST) by people reporting that they had seen what appeared to be a big cat chasing a wild boar.
The informants also provided a video. Based on that and a subsequent sighting of their own, the police concluded that the animal was apparently a lioness.
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Video appears to show a big cat suspected to be a lioness on the outskirts of Berlin. 9News
Helicopters and 30 police cars participated in the search, which was still ongoing Thursday afternoon.
A vet and two hunters also were involved, and a search with two drones and infrared cameras was under way in an area where the animal was seen.
People in Kleinmachnow, a town of about 20,000 in a flat, wooded area on the boundary between Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg, were advised to stay indoors if possible.
Failing that, they were urged to refrain from walks and jogs in the woods, and to take dogs at most for short walks on a leash.
Local authorities left child daycare centres open, though they were asked not to let children outside, and scaled back the town's weekly market.
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Helicopters and 30 police cars participated in the search, which was still ongoing Thursday afternoon. Fabian Sommer/dpa via AP
The warning was extended to neighbouring southern areas of Berlin and an alert was sent on an official warning app that the animal was suspected to be a lioness.
On Thursday afternoon, police in the capital tweeted that there had been a "possible sighting" of the animal just inside the city limits.
"The primary aim, if at all possible, is to capture the animal, if necessary with an anesthetic," Kleinmachnow Mayor Michael Grubert said.
"Other measures will only be taken on a case-by-case basis by police officers on the ground if their own lives or those of others are endangered."
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A man holds a sniffer dog as Berlin police warned the public that a suspected lioness was on the loose. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
Police said they had sought information about where the animal came from during the night, but none of the zoos, animals shelters, circuses or other facilities they checked was missing a lioness.
Grubert said there was no information on one being privately owned in the area, and added that he didn't know whether owning such an animal privately is even permitted.
He said authorities consider it unlikely that the animal has gone very far from where it was first sighted.
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