Police searching for a lioness in a Berlin suburb have determined there is “no acute danger” to people in the area, as experts conclude it may have been a wild boar.
Authorities launched a major search operation after receiving reports during the early hours of Thursday that a wild cat was prowling around the wooded areas of the Kleinmachnow area.
A widely-circulated video appeared to show a lioness in the nearby undergrowth, with police telling BBC that they believe the footage to be authentic and identified it as a “big cat”.
However, experts who have analysed the video have concluded that the animal was likely to have been a wild boar, which are common in the region. Independently of one another, the experts concluded that “this isn’t a lioness or a wild animal” and that the creature “tends toward a wild boar”.
A wide-ranging two-day search failed to turn up signs of the predator, with police only discovering a family of wild boars. Meanwhile, local residents were told to stay indoors and to avoid allowing their pets and children outside.
Kleinmachnow Mayor Michael Grubert told reporters that police thoroughly combed woodland on both sides of the state boundary and found no indication at all of a lioness or any wild animal other than wild boars.
"We will return to the usual vigilant program and we think there is no acute danger for Kleinmachnow or for the south of Berlin," the mayor said, adding that police would be able to step back up straight away if the situation changes.
Grubert defended the large, 36-hour deployment, in which helicopters, drones and infrared cameras were used and vets and hunters participated, as "appropriate."
"The danger of a wild animal in Kleinmachnow justifies the deployment," he said, adding that he would act the same way "if I were in the situation today."
Around 120 police officers and wildlife experts have been scouring the local wooded areas, with counter-terrorism vehicles, drones and helicopters involved in the search.
The news comes after a member of a notorious German crime family offered his help in capturing the suspected lioness, by saying he could “lead the lioness back to her enclosure”.
Firas Remmo, the son of the head of the Remmo family, urged authorities not to shoot the creature.
In a post on social media, he asked for anyone with information to “let him know first” so he can step in “before some idiot shoots her”.
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