Local authorities have advised residents to stay indoors and call the police if they saw any of the animals.
Two lions, tigers, a jaguar and a bear – which has now been shot – have escaped from a zoo in Lünebach, western Germany near the border with Luxembourg and Belgium.
German media sources have reported that the privately owned Eifel zoo flooded overnight due to a storm which meant the animals were able to go free.
The zoo opened in 1965 with dogs, donkeys and a wild boar, but has since expanded and is now home to 400 animals of 60 species, including Siberian tigers and lions, and sees around 70,000 people visit per year.
Two years ago two lions broke out of their cages in a zoo in Leipzig, one was safely captured whilst the other was shot dead.
