Police and officers from the Emergency Situations Ministry on Sunday caught a tiger that had been ?€?freely strolling?€? along a highway in the Voronezh region of western Russia, after apparently escaping from a truck that was transporting it, the ministry said in a statement.
Emergency services in Voronezh received a series of calls earlier Sunday from local residents, reporting a tiger walking around the highway, the statement said.
?€?The information was confirmed,?€? the statement by the Voronezh branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry said. ?€?A striped predator was indeed freely strolling near a garage co-op near the Voronezh ring road.?€?
?€?Particular concerns were prompted by the fact that the place where the predator was spotted is near a newly built residential district, which is home to many small children,?€? the statement said.
Police cordoned off the area, and a veterinarian from Voronezh zoo shot the tiger with a tranquilizer gun, the statement said.
?€?It took four shots and an additional injections of a sedative?€? to subdue the animal, which was then tied up with a rope, loaded on a truck and taken to a ?€?temporary home in a comfortable enclosure in Voronezh Zoo,?€? the ministry said.
Investigators believe that the tiger had escaped from a truck that was carrying it along the highway in Voronezh, the ministry said.