Paris Tiger Hunt Update: Big Feline On The Loose In France

French police and firefighters armed with tranquilizer darts hunted for a tiger roaming the streets of suburban Paris Thursday. The big cat was first spotted in a supermarket parking lot in the Seine-et-Marne district and then later in the bushes of a tennis court, according to the Mirror. Authorities were asked to avoid killing the animal, an endangered species, if possible.

Authorities tracked the tiger by its paw prints, according to TV channel TF1. Residents were told to stay inside and not to approach the animal. "We urge you to be careful," Montévrain officials wrote on their Facebook page.

It's possible the tiger escaped from a nearby cat zoo, the Parc des Félins in Lumigny-Nesles-Ormeaux. Disneyland Paris is also located nearby, but Euro Disney, which runs the theme park, said it has no tigers, according to the Associated Press. A local circus said it was not missing any of its animals.

"My wife saw it this morning," said Jean-Baptiste Berdeaux, the manager of a local supermarket in the town of Montévrain, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency. "She didn't get out of the car and called me to say 'I think I saw a lynx.'"

Tiger escapes have created panic in the past. In 2007, a tiger fatally attacked a man and left two others seriously injured after fleeing from the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas Day. It was later killed by police after it charged officers, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In 2013, a tiger escaped from the Nandankanan Zoological Park in India but then returned on its own accord, according to the Daily Mail.

Earlier this year in February, a Bengal tiger in northern India killed at least 10 people after escaping from the Jim Corbett National Park.