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Animal on the loose near Disneyland Paris may not be tiger

Scores of police patrolled a small town west of the French capital on Thursday night after an animal thought to be a young tiger eluded a massive search and remained on the prowl in the region near Disneyland Paris.

100 police to patrol French town of Montevrain overnight and search for animal to resume Friday morning

The Associated Press ·
This photo provided by the town council of Montevrain, east of Paris, shows what was believed to be a young tiger. A woman in the small town wets of Paris snapped a picture of the animal Thursday morning, and police were still had nor located it by nightfall. (Ville de Montevrain/Associated Press)

Scores of police patrolled a small town west of the French capital on Thursday night after a tiger eluded a massive search and remained on the prowl in the region near Disneyland Paris.

The small beast was spotted Thursday morning near a parking lot in Montevrain by a woman who snapped a photo of it.

Still on the loose by nightfall, some began to doubt whether it really was a tiger.

The Parc des Felins, a wild cat animal park 29 kilometers from Montevrain, said none of its cats are missing.

EuroDisney, the operator of Disneyland Paris, a top tourist destination in Europe, went out of its way to say the theme park has no tigers.

But authorities remained on alert.

School entrances guarded

Montevrain said 100 police would patrol the town of less than 10,000 overnight and the search for the animal would begin anew Friday.

Members of the police animal brigade walk through a wood in Montevrain. By the end of the day authorities had backed off referring to the animal as a 'tiger.' (Thibault Camus/Associated Press)
A helicopter with infrared equipment was to continue combing the area overnight, according to Cedric Tartaud, top aide to the mayor.

"We ask you for the greatest prudence," Montevrain told its residents on the town's Facebook page.

Entrances to the town's schools also were being guarded ahead of Friday classes.

Nearly 200 police, gendarmes, rescuers with tranquilizing guns and a specially trained dog searched the area Thursday. Authorities urged people in Montevrain, nearby Chessy and Chalifert to stay indoors, and children were escorted home from school.

The paw print of what could be a tiger that was on the loose in the region near the Disneyland Paris theme park. (Thibault Camus/Associated Press)
The animal was spotted about 8:30 a.m. local time by the wife of supermarket manager Jean-Baptiste Berdeaux, who told BFM-TV she initially thought it was a lynx. She snapped the photo of it standing on a ridge above a parking lot.

An examination of a muddy footprint showed it was a tiger weighing about 70 kilograms and about 1 1/2 years old, said Clement Joly, a Montevrain spokesman.

No precautions at theme park

But at nightfall, top officials were no longer using the word "tiger."

"All forces are mobilized to capture this animal," Montevrain Mayor Christiani Robache told reporters on BFM-TV.

Disneyland Paris, above, is one of Europe's most popular tourist destinations. (Benoit Tessier/Reuters)
The under-prefect for the Seine-et-Marne region, Frederic MacKain, said the fuzzy photo "leads us to believe it's the silhouette of a feline."

The wooded region dotted with small towns provides abundant cover for any wild animal to hide.

Montevrain sent out a news alert on its Facebook page Thursday, saying a young tiger was spotted in the brush behind tennis courts and a soccer field about nine kilometers from Disneyland Paris.

However, officials at the theme park said no special precautions were taken Thursday inside the park because the loose animal wasn't deemed a threat.

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