Search on for 2 lions escaped from cage in German zoo

Visitors wait at the entrance of the zoo in Leipzig, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016, after two lions have escaped from their cages overnight and are somewhere on the zoo grounds. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Sept. 20, 2016 file photo lions Motshegetsi, left, and Majo look from behind a shrub in the zoo in Leipzig. eastern Germany. One of the lions had to be shot after they escaped from their enclosure Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP, file) (The Associated Press)

BERLIN – Officials say two lions have escaped from a zoo in eastern Germany.

The Leipzig Zoo told the dpa news agency Thursday that the lions somehow escaped from their cages overnight and are somewhere on the zoo grounds.

The zoo's not opening to the public until the two cats are found, and the zoo says an emergency plan is in place.

The two male lions, Majo and Motshegetsi, were born about a year ago in the Basel Zoo and have been at the Leipzig Zoo since August.