Two tigers escaped from a big cat sanctuary in the
Netherlands and headed towards an insecure outer fence, say police.
Officers
warned residents of the small northern village of Oldeberkoop, 87 miles
north-east of Amsterdam, to stay inside until the tigers could be caught and
returned to their shelter.
Police spokesman Nathalie Schubart said
the sanctuary's outer fence is not fully secure.
She said the tigers - named Radjah and
Dehli - needed to be caught because they may have escaped through the fence,
"which would be dangerous for the people nearby".
There were no reports of injuries.
Police
later tweeted that one of the tigers had been hit with a tranquiliser but it
had not had the desired effect.
"Still trying to tranquilise the
animals," they added.
Just after 1pm BST, police tweeted that
the tigers were both under general anaesthesia.
Oldeberkoop is home to the Felida
centre, which receives big cats from circuses and zoos, treats them, and works
to replace some in a larger shelter in South Africa.
According to its website, the
centre's residents include two lions, eight tigers, a black jaguar, and a
leopard.
Radjah and Dehli were rescued from a zoo
in north Germany whose owner could no longer afford to feed them.
Newspaper De Telegraaf reported that the
tigers appeared to have escaped through a gate which had been left open
accidentally.
No comments:
Post a Comment