The son of a German crime boss has issued an appeal for information on the whereabouts of a lioness roaming the streets of Berlin, saying he wants to take the poacher into his enclosure ‘before some idiot shoots him’.
Firas Remmo, son of notorious Berlin gang boss Issa Remmo and lover of big cats, has revealed he has joined the search for a missing lioness that was spotted on the outskirts of the city.
Remo, whose family is considered one of the most dangerous players in Berlin’s so-called ‘Arab mafia’, urged anyone with information about the lioness’s whereabouts to contact him before the police so they could not shoot the poacher.
Remo, who shared a picture of himself sitting on a sofa next to a young tiger cub, wrote on Instagram: ‘If anyone knows anything please tell me first so we can get the lioness back to her enclosure before some idiot shoots her.’
German police officers armed with guns are today searching the southern districts of Berlin for the lioness, who will likely be sedated if found. However, the local mayor admitted that the lioness would be shot if there was an immediate danger to human life.
Firas Remmo (pictured with a tiger in December), son of notorious Berlin gang boss Issa Remmo and lover of big cats, has revealed he has joined the search for a missing lioness that was spotted on the outskirts of the city.
Remo, who shared a picture of himself sitting on a sofa next to a young tiger cub (pictured), wrote on Instagram: ‘If anyone knows anything please let me know first, then we got the lioness back to her enclosure before some idiot shot her.
Police officers began another day searching for a lioness hiding in Kleinmachno in Berlin on Friday
Police officers armed with guns search a wood in Kleinmachnow, south Berlin, for the lioness on Friday.
Remo, who referred to the lioness as ‘Nala’, responded by urging Berlin residents to contact her, and those who knew her also spread the message.
She shared a post on Instagram from a user who said: ‘I think there are still people who love animals. Please let Nala live and please don’t shoot her. If you see a lioness, please report it to Firas Remmo. Thank you.’
The Raymore family has been linked to a number of high-profile raids across Berlin, including the theft of a massive gold coin from a Berlin museum and an £8billion bank robbery in which the branch was blown up.
His plea for help finding the lioness isn’t the first time he’s been linked to the big cat. In December, she posted a video of herself on Instagram with the caption ‘My new favorite pet’ – all of which prompted a police investigation.
Berlin residents reported seeing lionesses and hearing lion roars in the Zehlendorf area near the city limits last night, Berlin police said.
Officers armed with guns, night-vision goggles and drones scoured the area throughout the night, but could not find the lioness.
Residents living in the southern districts of the city – Kleinmachno, Telto and Stansdorf – have been advised to stay in their homes and keep all doors and windows closed. But some Berliners decided to defy the order today and walk their dogs in a forest in the Zehlendorf area.
It comes as experts on animal tracks joined the hunt today – but some have begun to doubt whether a lion is indeed on the loose and suggested it could instead be another wild boar.
A video on Twitter showed a lioness walking through leaves in Kleinmachno
A lioness roaming the streets of Berlin is what police believe is a danger zone
A professional animal track searcher looks for signs of a lioness in Kleinmachno on Friday
Kleinmachno Mayor Michael Grubert said at the time of the hunt that he believed the animal could only be a wild boar.
He said: ‘You see, when you see the wild boar now, you can already imagine that if it glowed a little in the evening light, you would think it was a lion.
‘Deep fake videos are a bit exaggerated. But it must be that due to the incident of light, maybe the headlights of the car, the darkness of the night mimics it a bit, as if it were a lion.
‘And it may be a wild boar again. The video we assume is real.’
A neighbor added: ‘I’m still not sure if it’s really a lion when no remains of a dead boar have been found. I wonder if there was some misidentification.’
Grubert told local public broadcaster RBB late Thursday that authorities would comb the forest near Kleinmachnow and Zehlendorf on Friday with ‘professional animal track searchers’.
‘We have to say that this cannot go on for days,’ he said, adding that he expected the search to be ‘intense’ on Friday.
The search began early Thursday morning after two locals spotted the escaped lioness chasing a wild boar in the suburb of Kleinmachno.
Since then the lioness has been spotted multiple times by locals, police officers and firefighters – but each time, the poacher escapes their sight and they never find it again.
Hunter Peter Hemmerden, who was involved in the search, said: ‘If there had been a lion that posed an immediate danger to the boar and its offspring, they would not have been so calm.
‘We have just received word that a lion has run into the forest along with a group of boars.
‘This message has been proven wrong. Because the group is still very quiet in the forest and if there were any predators around looking for food, the group would act very differently and certainly would not be here.
‘So this message, like many others, again does not support the existence of any lions.’
‘At the moment I no longer believe it to be a lion, there is a small chance but from my analysis and looking at all the pictures and videos it looks like it was a boar.’
Police officers walk through a forest in Kleinmachno during a search for a lioness in Berlin on Friday
Police officers and a hunter gather to search for a lioness roaming the streets of Berlin’s Kleinmachnow on Friday.
Police officers and a hunter began their search of the wood in Berlin’s Kleinmachnow on Friday
Panzer! German police use a Survivor ‘Panzerwagen’, an armored vehicle, in a search for a rogue lioness south of Berlin on July 20, 2023.
German police spokesman Daniel Kip said: ‘In the summer, you often hear about crocodiles swimming in lakes and then it turns out it was a big duck. In this case, it is obviously completely real.
‘We are dealing with a lioness that roams freely in Telto, Stansdorf and Kleinmachnow.’
Around 7 pm last night, another reported sighting of a lioness in a forest in Kleinmachno district spurred police officers into action.
“We are in a hot phase now, he has just been spotted,” a police officer told a local resident, German newspaper Bild reported.
Joggers were barred from entering the woodland by officers, as the search appeared to be ‘getting heated’ in the evening with one officer shouting ‘get out of the wood’ to the joggers.
Police joined professional hunters and vets, armed with tranquilizer guns and pistols, in an attempt to safely capture the lioness – believed to be a personal pet – but to no avail.
They said on Friday morning that the search was unsuccessful during the night and was continuing. They are urged to call emergency numbers if they see the animal.
Officials stressed that effective measures will ‘continue until the risk to the population is ruled out’.
No zoo has reported a missing lioness, raising questions about where the animal could have come from.
There are 32 registered lions in the state of Brandenburg, around Berlin, and they were accounted for, the RBB said, leaving police to ask whether the animal was being kept illegally. No owner has come forward since the search began early Thursday morning.
Police were alerted early Thursday after two men chased what appeared to be a lioness after chasing a wild boar down a road less than three miles from the German capital.
Residents living in the southern districts of the city – Kleinmachno, Telto and Stansdorf – have been advised to stay in their homes and keep all doors and windows closed. But some defiant Berliners decided to defy the order today and walk their dogs in a forest in the Zehlendorf area (pictured).
Hunters and veterinarians are said to be helping to find the animal in Germany
A woman carries a tranquilizer gun as members of the veterinary office search for the lioness
On Thursday, the hound chased the police car away from the forest where the cat was supposed to be
Two passers-by found the cat in the middle of the night in the Kleinmachno suburb, southwest of Berlin.
They have shared mobile phone footage of the animal with police, who believe the images are genuine, Kleinmachno Mayor Michael Grubert said at a news conference.
‘Even experienced officers had to conclude that it was probably a lioness,’ a police spokesman told local broadcaster RBB.
Kirstin Schröder, a police spokesman for the Brandenburg region near Berlin, said the animal was later spotted by police officers.
Local authorities were seen driving armored vehicles – ‘Panzerwagen’ – through residential areas as a helicopter with thermal imaging circles overhead.
Thorsten Thaddy was out for a morning jog in Kleinmachno yesterday when he was stopped by the police, who told him a wild animal was roaming the nearby forest.
‘I have to be honest, I was a bit nervous. Because it’s a different caliber than a normal dog or other pet that escaped,’ he said. ‘So I’m running home now.’
Kleinmachno Mayor Michael Grubert said this is not the time to be ‘jogging in the woods’.
A police spokesman was forced to admit: ‘We don’t know where it came from.’
Since no zoo or circus has reported a missing lioness, police believe she must be an escaped pet.
Once the animal is found, it will likely be tranquilized with a tranquilizer and taken to an animal shelter, the mayor said. But Grubert added that the lioness would be shot if there was an immediate danger to human life.
Brandenburg police said anyone crossing paths with cats should ‘seek safety immediately and call the police’.
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