After more than 24 hours of research, the alert was lifted on Friday in Berlin and its surroundings. The feverishly sought animal “is not a lioness” but more likely a wild boar, announced Michael Grubert, mayor of Kleinmachnow, a municipality southwest of Berlin where the beast had been reported.
“I assume that there is no danger in Berlin and the surrounding area,” adds the mayor, thereby announcing the end of the search. He explains that independent experts had estimated using the video of the animal, filmed at night, that “it was probably a wild boar”. The decision to sound the end of the alert was taken in agreement with the police.
The authorities, however, remain vigilant and, in the event of a change in the situation, “are capable at any time of returning to service”, he adds. The supposed beast had been seen and filmed by two passers-by, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday. The police then thought they had identified a lioness by viewing the video. Police officers then thought they saw the animal during the same night, reinforcing the theory of the lioness on the loose.
More than a hundred agents, supported by veterinarians and hunters, were engaged in this hunt. Helicopters, drones and thermal cameras were also mobilized. The inhabitants of several municipalities on the outskirts of the capital as well as the south-west of Berlin had been invited to avoid the wooded areas, numerous in the residential districts concerned, which extend to the outskirts of the affluent city of Potsdam.
