Tiger escapes from circus, takes to the road in Sicily

ROME – A tiger escaped from a circus in Sicily, running along the road in a town near Palermo before being recaptured.

Monreale Mayor Piero Capizzi said at first he thought someone was joking when he was told a tiger was on the loose Saturday.

But local traffic police indeed found the tiger on the run. The animal was re-captured after being coaxed to go inside a series of increasingly smaller cages. It was taken back to the circus.

The mayor says it is not known how the tiger escaped from the circus, which is currently performing in the Monreale area.