French authorities hunt for 'tiger' on the loose near Paris

Several residents in the town of Montevrain, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the French capital, raised the alarm on Thursday after the alleged tiger was spotted in brush behind a local sports field.

A helicopter equipped with a thermal detector to zero in on heat circled overhead, while up to 60 officials, including police, firefighters, a dog-catcher and a wolf-catcher, combed a cordoned-off forested area until nightfall.

"We have been running after it since this morning, police officers are trying to intercept it," a police source said. As the light faded, the Montevrain council posted on its Facebook page that the search had been called off and would resume again at 7 a.m. local time (0500 UTC).

Authorities have urged people who live in Montevrain, Chessy and Chalifert to remain indoors or stay in their cars if they have to travel. School children in Montevrain were accompanied home after Thursday's classes, and local schools were expected to be secured again on Friday morning.

There have been several sightings of the animal, but so far the team of trackers has only found the cat's footprints. A spokesman for the town hall told Reuters they appeared to belong to a big cat.

"The feline experts who analyzed the paw prints said it was a large feline, probably a tiger, weighing 80 kilograms (176.37 pounds)," spokesman Clement Joly said.

But just where the tiger came from remains a mystery. A nearby wild cat animal park, the Parc des Felins, said none of its animals were missing. And EuroDisney, which operates the Disneyland Paris theme park just 9 kilometers (5.5 miles) from Montevrain said it did not keep tigers. The council spokesman said the animal was most likely kept as a private pet.

nm/kms (Reuters, AP, AFP)