Mystery big cat on the prowl near Paris is not a tiger, experts say

A big, wild cat on the loose near Disneyland Paris is not a tiger, French authorities said yesterday as they scaled back a massive hunt for the animal that has involved 200 police and military officers as well as a helicopter.

The creature popped up near a supermarket, crossed a major highway, slinked past a petrol station, and sent regional officials into high alert on Thursday before experts determined that it was probably little more than a large cat or a lynx.

A woman in Montevrain town had spotted the animal on Thursday and snapped a fuzzy photo of it standing on a ridge above a car park. An initial examination of a muddy footprint showed it was a tiger weighing about 70kg and about 11/2 years old.

But yesterday, the Seine-et-Marne region administration said "the presence of an animal of the tiger species has proven to be excluded", based on analysis by government wild animal experts.

Eric Hansen, of the national hunting and wild fauna agency, said the animal in question was more likely a smaller and far less dangerous creature. "People got a bit carried away," he said.

The government said the creature was feline but they were still trying to determine its species. Its origins remain a mystery.