Govt Invites Hunters in Search for Tiger, Hyena Missing from Flooded Zoo
Vere river-bank reinforcement works at Tskhneti street on June 18, 2015. Photo: ministry of infrastructure
Members of a Tbilisi-based hunting club have been invited by the authorities to get involved in search for a tiger and a striped hyena, which remain unaccounted for from the flooded Tbilisi zoo.
A white tiger was shot by the police after it attacked and killed a man in a warehouse in the Tbilisi center on June 17.
The State Security and Crisis Management Council said that 112 emergency call center has received 47 reports about “animals spotted” in various residential areas since last night.
All of these calls were responded, but all of them turned out false alarms, according to the crisis management council.
In one case, according to an Interior Ministry spokesperson, when the police arrived on the Paliashvili street in the Vake neighbourhood of Tbilisi in response to 112 emergency call, they found out that the false alarm was caused by a sound of tiger roar, which was played through loudspeakers by the children.
“A team of professional hunters have been involved in the search of missing animals. Together with the Interior Ministry and Tbilisi City Hall employees, they have observed areas at the Turtle Lake; Ethnographic Museum and the Svanidze street,” the crisis management council said on June 19.
“No trace of a wild animal has yet been found. The search operation continues,” it said.
The council called on the people to refrain from visiting areas at the Turtle Lake and open-air Museum of Ethnography.
Meanwhile, clearing up of flood-affected areas from debris and mud, among them in the Mziuri park and the zoo, continued for a sixth day on Friday.
Flood in Tbilisi from the night of June 13 to June 14 killed 19 people and three others remain missing.
There are total of 106 families, whose houses have been either destroyed or damaged as result of the flood, according to the crisis management council.
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