WILD THING
Escaped lion on the loose in Berlin as beast spotted ‘with kill’ & people warned it could attack anyone
GERMAN cops have urged people to stay indoors as a suspected lioness was spotted on the loose in the capital.
Officers advised the residents of Berlin's southern suburbs not to leave their houses and to keep their pets indoors.
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A massive police operation is underway in the area including a helicopter and thermal imaging cameras to locate the missing animal.
A police spokesperson said: "We have deployed massive forces at the site to protect the population."
Authorities in Brandenburg state warned residents in the districts of Kleinmachnow, Teltow and Stahnsdorf to watch out for a potentially dangerous animal, suspected to be a lioness, that is on the loose.
The warning came after locals reported seeing a predator, seemingly a lioness, attacking a wild boar.
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Terrified residents told how they were instructed to stay indoors home with some being forced to lock up their pets at home as they headed to work.
Mariam B. who brought her children to the Ameisenburg daycare centre in the morning told : "The lioness must have been right on our doorstep because the police searched there very intensively!"
"Dogs were barking all over the neighborhood. We were told over the loudspeaker that we were not allowed to leave the house.
"Now we were finally allowed to take our children to the daycare centre."
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Another local mother, Beate Geeske, said: "I think it's good that the children aren't allowed out.
"But I didn't worry too much on the way here. I walked where there are still people on the street.”
Five hunters with tranquiliser guns are reportedly combing the area alongside veterinarians to find the animal.
Two men reported seeing a big cat running after a wild boar, the latter common in and around Berlin, police spokesman Daniel Kiep said.
He said: "Around midnight, witnesses saw a predator tearing down a wild boar.
"We also got video material about it. It is therefore a lioness. There is currently no reason for us to doubt its authenticity."
He added that zoos, animal parks, circuses and animal sanctuaries had been checked but none of them is missing a lioness.
"We don't know where it came from," he said.
Brandenburg Police tweeted this morning: "The wild animal that escaped has not yet been found!
"We ask you not to leave your houses."
Vet Dr. Fred Willizkat told the outlet that lions on the loose are not necessarily hungry but they're unpredictable.
"That's what makes it dangerous," he said.
"A lion can attack anything that he doesn't know and that scares him."
Vets and hunters are participating in a search for the beast.
A Kleinmachnow spokesperson said children at kindergartens are not allowed to enter the gardens, while sellers at local markets were advised not to set up stalls yet.
She added: "There are hardly any people there. This sort of thing doesn't happen every day."
It's not the first time Germans have been told to be on the lookout for wild animals on the loose.
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In May, residents in the central German city of Erfurt were jolted by the sight of a kangaroo hopping across a busy road after escaping from a private property.
In 2016, German zookeepers had to shoot dead a lion after it escaped from its enclosure in the eastern city of Leipzig and a tranquiliser failed to stop it.
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