‘Lion roars in the night’ as search for beast of Berlin’s stray lioness continues: alarm spreads to nearby towns as residents are warned to remain vigilant

Berlin residents have reported hearing lion roars in the middle of the night as the desperate search for a lioness prowling the city’s outskirts continues.

German police officers, armed with rifles, are today searching the southern districts of the capital after two locals saw the escaped lioness chasing a wild boar in the suburb of Kleinmachnow in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Local residents reported seeing the lioness and hearing lion roars last night in the nearby Zehlendorf area near the city limits, Berlin police said.

Officers equipped with rifles, night vision goggles and drones searched the area all night, but could not find the lioness.

Residents of the city’s southern neighborhoods – Kleinmachnow, Teltow and Stahnsdorf – have been advised to stay in their homes and keep all doors and windows closed. But some Berliners today decided to defy orders and walk their dogs in a forest near Zehlendorf.

It’s because animal tracking experts joined the hunt for the lioness today.

Police officers armed with rifles search a forest in Kleinmachnow, south Berlin, for the lioness on Friday

Video on Twitter appeared to show a lioness wandering through the foliage in Kleinmachnow

The danger zone where, according to the police, a lioness roams the streets of Berlin

A professional animal tracker is looking for signs of the lioness in Kleinmachnow on Friday

Kleinmachnow mayor Michael Grubert told local public broadcaster RBB late on Thursday that authorities would be combing the forest near Kleinmachnow and Zehlendorf with “professional trackers” on Friday.

“We have to say this can’t go on for days,” he said, adding that he expected the search to “intensify” on Friday.

There have been a series of sightings of the lioness – by locals, police officers and firefighters – but each time the predator escapes from their sight and they can no longer trace it.

German police spokesman Daniel Keip said: ‘In the summer you often hear reports of crocodiles in bathing lakes and then it turns out it was just a big duck. In this case, of course, it is completely real.

“We’re dealing with a lioness roaming free in Teltow, Stahnsdorf, and Kleinmachnow.”

Last night around 7pm, a new sighting of the lioness in a forest near Kleinmachnow district sparked a wave of activity by police officers.

“We are currently in a hot phase, she has just been seen,” a police officer told a local resident, reports the German newspaper Bild.

Joggers were denied entry to the woods by officers as the search appeared to “heat up” in the evening with an officer shouting “get out of the woods quickly” to runners.

Police have been assisted by professional hunters and vets, armed with stun guns and pistols, in an attempt to safely capture the lioness – believed to be a private pet – but to no avail.

They said Friday morning that the search was unsuccessful overnight and continued. They urged people to call 911 if they see the animal.

Officers have insisted that existing operational measures “will continue until a risk to the population can be ruled out.”

No zoo has reported a missing lioness, leading to questions about the animal’s provenance.

There are 32 registered lions in the state of Brandenburg around Berlin and they have been registered, RBB reported, leaving police to question whether the beast had been kept illegally. Since the start of the search on Thursday, no owner has come forward.

Police were first alerted early Thursday after two people saw what appeared to be a lioness chasing a wild boar on a street less than (three miles) from the German capital.

Police officers walk through a forest in Kleinmachnow on Friday during their search for a lioness in Berlin

Police officers and a hunter gather on Friday to search for a lioness roaming the streets of Kleinmachnow, Berlin

Police officers and a hunter begin their search in the woods in Kleinmachnow, Berlin, on Friday

Panzers! German police use a Survivor ‘panzerwagen’, an armored vehicle, during a search for a rogue lioness in southern Berlin, July 20, 2023

Residents of the city’s southern neighborhoods – Kleinmachnow, Teltow and Stahnsdorf – have been advised to stay in their homes and keep all doors and windows closed. But some rebellious Berliners today decided to defy orders and walk their dogs in a forest near Zehlendorf (pictured)

Hunters and veterinarians reportedly helped track the animal in Germany

A woman carries a tranquilizer gun as members of the veterinary office search for the lioness

Police cars drive out of the forest where the predatory cat should be on Thursday

The two passers-by saw the cat around midnight in the suburb of Kleinmachnow, southwest of Berlin.

They shared mobile phone images of the animal with police, who believe the footage is real, Kleinmachnow mayor Michael Grubert told a news conference.

“Even experienced officers had to conclude that it was probably a lioness,” a police spokesman told local broadcaster RBB.

The animal was later also noticed by police officers themselves, says Kerstin Schroeder, police spokeswoman in the Brandenburg region around Berlin.

Local authorities were seen armored vehicles – ‘panzerwagen’ – driving through residential areas like a helicopter with thermal imaging circles overhead.

Thorsten Thaddey was jogging in Kleinmachnow yesterday when he was stopped by police, who told him that a wild animal may have been wandering through the nearby forest.

I have to be honest, I panicked a bit. Because it’s a different caliber than a normal dog or other pet that has run away,” he said. “So I’m going to run home now.”

Kleinmachnow mayor Michael Grubert said it was not the time “to go jogging in the woods.”

A police spokesperson was forced to admit: “We don’t know where it came from.”

Since no zoo or circus has reported a missing lioness, police believe it must be an escaped pet.

Once the animal is found, it will likely be sedated with a sedative and taken to an animal shelter, the mayor said. But Grubert added that if there was an imminent danger to human life, the lioness would be shot.

Anyone who crosses the cat should “seek safety immediately and call the police,” the Brandenburg police said.