A wild animal, probably a lioness, tracked in the residential suburbs of Berlin, remained untraceable Thursday evening, despite a vast deployment of police, drones, helicopters, accompanied by calls for caution.
Vigilance remains in order, underlined the police of Brandenburg, the region surrounding Berlin, at the end of the afternoon.
The population of several municipalities located to the south-west of the capital is always invited to avoid wooded areas, many of which are in the residential areas concerned which extend to the outskirts of the wealthy city of Potsdam.
Since the feline was reported, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, the hunt has increased: more than a hundred regional police officers are mobilized, including members of the special forces, supported by hunters and a veterinarian. Drones and helicopters are also in action.
“Operational measures will be continued until any threat to the population can be removed,” the police said late in the afternoon.
The authorities consider the testimony, supported by a video, received shortly after midnight to be credible.
“Two passers-by who had seen an animal chasing another” sounded the alarm, Brandenburg police spokesman Daniel Keip told AFP.
“One was a wild boar and the other was obviously a beast, a lioness,” he added, adding that “experienced police officers have confirmed that it was probably a lioness”.
During a press conference in Kleinmachnow, a small town near Berlin where the animal was seen, Mayor Michael Grubert said “assuming that the video was authentic”.
Later, the alleged feline was seen “by police colleagues during the night”, assured Kerstin Schröder, one of the spokespersons for the Brandenburg police.
No “walks in the forest and jogging”, advised Mr. Grubert to the approximately 20,000 citizens of Kleinmachnow, also invited not to take their pets out.
A local resident met by AFP, Lutz Peters, was worried about his “two dachshunds”. “It’s probably the ideal food for a lion,” he observed. “Throughout the night we heard the helicopters (…) I have never experienced such a thing,” he added.
“I must say that I was a little panicked. It’s an animal of a different caliber than a normal dog. I’m going to go home,” said Thorsten Thaddey, a resident of the town stopped by the police during his morning jog.
If the animal is caught, “it should if possible be put to sleep and handed over to the animal protection office”, according to the mayor.
The origin of the possible lioness on the run is for the moment unknown. No animal parks, zoos or circuses have reported any missing persons, according to the police.
In an interview with the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel, circus director Michel Rogall, based in Teltow, another adjoining town in the south-west of Berlin, told how he had been woken up at two in the morning by the police to find out if he was missing a feline.
He expressed doubts about this wild animal alert. “No circus in the whole of Germany has a lion or a tiger anymore,” he told the German newspaper.
After seeing the video, Mr Rogall said: “If that’s a lion, I’m eating my hat off of it”. “The animal is far too slender and too small,” he said.
According to him, it could be a “Caucasian Shepherd”. “I have a similar dog at home, but he’s still there,” he said.
Two weeks ago, a serval, held by an individual who had not reported it to the authorities, escaped from its owner’s home in Bad Kreuznach (near Frankfurt) causing panic in the locality, said the German association for animal protection, Vier Pfoten.
Among the fugitive felines that made headlines in Europe, a panther, stolen from the Maubeuge zoo in September 2019, had escaped through the roof of a building in Armentières (northern France) before being captured by firefighters.
20/07/2023 20:04:33 – Berlin (AFP) © 2023 AFP
