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SCORES OF FRENCH police armed with tranquiliser guns and assisted by a helicopter resumed the search for a tiger on the loose near Paris this morning, as authorities ordered residents to stay home.
A dozen or so soldiers from a nearby army base prepared to join the hunt for the fearsome beast which has eluded all attempts at capture since being spotted prowling around a supermarket car park on Thursday morning.
A chopper equipped with thermal imaging equipment circled over the search zone, a wooded area near the small town of Montevrain, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) east of Paris.
And police guarded the entrance to schools as children arrived this morning.
Meanwhile, authorities were still scratching their heads as to where the tiger could have come from.
Montevrain is a stone’s throw from the popular Disneyland Paris but owners insist that tigers are not among the theme park’s attractions.
Authorities have also made enquiries at a big-cat wildlife park 30 kilometres away.
Suspicion initially fell on a circus that had set up its big top in the supermarket car park a few days ago, but town mayor Christian Robache said it “did not have a tiger”.
‘No doubt, it’s a tiger’
A local woman sounded the alarm early on Thursday morning after spotting the animal in the supermarket car park.
Several more people later came forward saying they had seen the tiger on the prowl.
More than 100 police officers and firefighters armed with tranquilising guns spent the day combing the area in the Seine-et-Marne district near the French capital, without success.
Authorities ordered residents to stay indoors and use cars to pick their children up from school.
Experts were sure the animal on the loose was a tiger.
“There is no doubt, it’s a tiger,” said Robert Picaud, the head of a local group responsible for regulating pests, and who took part in the search.
The footprints are real and they were not made by a man. These prints and photos leave no room for doubt.
Police were also using thermal cameras in a bid to find the big cat, estimated to weigh around 70 kilogrammes (155 pounds), according to Robache.
A dog trained in tracking bears and large game was also brought in to help with the search effort.
As darkness fell, officials suspended the search until daybreak. The helicopter with thermal imaging continued through the night but “the search proved fruitless,” a police source told AFP.
Authorities have said they hope to catch the tiger alive:
If it’s possible, we’ll try and put it to sleep. If it becomes dangerous or aggressive, the order will be given to kill it.
A source close to the search operation said the hunt for any tiger would be made more difficult because if the big cat behaved in typical fashion, it would nap a lot, possibly spending hours unnoticed sleeping in a tree.
The PETA animal rights group called on authorities to “show restraint and compassion in dealing with this tiger on the loose”.
“This situation, however upsetting, is entirely preventable and should serve as a wake-up call to the public about the perils of keeping wild animals in captivity,” the group told AFP in a statement.
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What extra Cork to Dublin flights ????.as we’ve no scheduled flights to there as it is !!!
@John O’Driscoll: He hasn’t a clue really. Populist request…… Extra trains and buses are all that’s needed. At least they will leave you close to Croke Park
WOW, he really has his hand on the pulse of what is happening in Cork
It’s 2 hours up the motorway…
@Richard K: hmmm… it’s 2 hours from Naas my guy. Welcome to the city.
@Richard K: 2 hours driving from some parts of West Cork and you are still In the county of Cork.
Has Tommy lost the plot?? He was complaining a few weeks ago about the price of match tickets. There haven’t been Cork to Dublin flights for years!!
I think Thomas will get a telling off from mary lou over this one…a bit like the helicopter to the Galway races
Jaysus, All Irelands for over a hundred years, the same distance, similar ground capacities and now you want to fly to Dublin. Travel like you always did or stay at home and moan that you wasted your ticket because you couldn’t get a flight. Proper fan indeed. Up Cork, Up Clare.
Actually, drive up to Shannon, lol.
There was another Cork TD or Senator on last week, wanting the motorway tolls to be eliminated next Sunday…Jesu* wept !!
@John Manahan: Actually a good suggestion to help traffic flow. Especially with both counties traffic on the same road for part of the way. Would only have to leave them open for a couple of hours in the evening. Operators aren’t dependent on those kind of bonanzas.
Just after the local elections, sinn fein said that they need to listen to the people more…
Should a party not exist because of certain principles and ideas that makes up its ethos, and people vote on which party best represents their thoughts, rather than each party bending and twisting trying to muster votes from each side.
Fianna fail and fine gael are no better..
We end up with parties that don’t really stand for anything, left or right leaning
What an extremely sad man he is.
Welcome to another climate change denier. God be with the good auld days when they’d set off walking on Wednesday to be there for the match. Notions, that’s what it is, flights how are ye!
Flights from cork to dublin? La de da. Nothing wrong with the aircoach.
The Coveney posse shud be able to fit a few of the loyal in down the back
If O’Leary was any good he would sort out a few flights for it.
@Padraig: If the GAA were any good they’d give the 2 participating counties a bigger share of the tickets.
@Padraig: It ain’t his job Pádraig!
Sorry!!
Far more important things for a TD to be doing me thinks
It’s great to see people who haven’t been to games all year can fly back after securing a ticket
Lots of places to go in ireland if you want to see people fighting with sticks.
He’s right about going to Croke Park. Men actually walked to the match along the railway tracks. One man would cycle 30- 40 miles in limerick to play in in a match. The country was impoverished for many years after the founding of the state. People emigrated never to return. It’s seeing the past through rose tinted glasses. My family would get parcels from America. Swiss family Robinson was an amazing book I read in the 1950s. Another version of the wild geese after WWll it was. We had no political leaders until people like lemass took up the reins. Everything changed then. Sport was an incredibly unifying force. I met a Canadian sports commentator in Portugal once. He said “don’t tell me, don’t tell me “. I was just after flying from Dublin where I saw the hurling final.
Maybe rail line from the airport aswell.
No climate worries for that weekend put on 10 extra flights another waster
have your say