Tiger roaming hurricane-ravaged streets ©
US authorities busy trying to clean up Texas after Hurricane Ike have a new problem on their hands: There's a tiger loose.
A county official said on Tuesday that the animal somehow left its enclosure at an exotic pets centre in Crystal Beach on Bolivar Peninsula, an area that is one of the hardest-hit by Ike.
Animal experts are coming in to try to catch the tiger.
Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough, the county's top elected official, put it this way: "Turns out there's a tiger, and I understand he's hungry ... so we're staying away from him."
The news follows reports of a lion holed up in a Baptist church with its owner on Bolivar Peninsula.
Livestock and other animals are also said to be roaming amid Hurricane Ike's wreckage.