When daylight returns to the Paris area, police and animal wardens will resume the search for what appears to be a young tiger on the loose in the suburbs near Disneyland.  People were warned to stay inside on Thursday, and that will go for Friday as well.

Cedric Tartaud, director of the mayor's office in Montevrain said, “We don’t believe this tiger is totally dangerous because if it's a young tiger, maybe approximately 70 kilograms, maybe it’s afraid, maybe he can come from a circus in the cities around Montevrain.  We don't know.”

Local zoos report no missing animals, and Disney didn’t have a tiger to start with.  There is a big cat park called “Parc des Felins de Nesles” located nearby.  But park officials say it’s not one of theirs.

“With the security that we have here, it’s impossible.  It would have made holes everywhere along the barriers,” said a spokeswoman.

At 8:30 on Thursday morning, the owner of a supermarket and his wife were just heading into work when she looked up and saw an unfamiliar figure.

“She didn’t get out of the car and called me to say ‘I think I saw a lynx’,” said Jean-Baptiste Berdeaux.  Police say several more people spotted the Tiger in the hours to come.

“It is a tiger, for sure, a dangerous animal,” said deputy chief of police Pierre-Emmanuel Portheret in Seine-et-Marne.  “We don't know how much time it will take to find the tiger, maybe several days.  The animal might get hungry by then.”