© dpa
The lioness they are looking for is probably a wild boar: The municipality of Kleinmachnow and the Brandenburg police no longer assume that a lioness or any other predator is on the loose in Berlin or Brandenburg.
There is no longer a dangerous situation, said Mayor of Kleinmachnow Michael Grubert (SPD) at a press conference on Friday. The police confirmed this assessment. All search measures had not yielded any clues. In addition, an analysis of the widely shred video had shown that the animal in question was probably a wild boar. "According to all human judgment, we assume that it is not a lioness," Grubert said.
The search for the suspected predator near the southwestern city limits of Berlin began in the night on Thursday. It was triggered by av seconds-long video depicting an animal resembling a lioness roaming the woods in Brandenburg. The video snippet made the rounds through social networks on Thursday. Investigating authorities deemed the video to be genuine. According to a spokeswoman, police officers stated that they had also seen a wild animal.
In addition to dozens of police officers, veterinarians and the Berlin city hunter were also involved in the search. However, renewed supposed sightings of the wanted predator and tips from the public proved to be wrong. "There is not one clue that has led to any assumption that it could be a lioness, or a wild cat, a big one," Grubert said. At the beginning of the search, it was still said that the lioness had been seen killing a wild boar. But the remains of this animal could not be found either.