Imagine the panic of thinking you have spotted a loose tiger in a place where they definitely should not be roaming. Reports of a roaming tigerin Kent managed to catch police attention and an armed group set off to put residents at ease. However, the intimidating deadly beast turned out to be a harmless sculpture.
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The creator, Juliet Simpson created the tiger sculpture twenty years ago and it has been sitting in the woods ever since. Simpson revealed to BBC:
Out of the field opposite came a whole crowd of armed police, who by then knew that it was all a false alarm and I said 'would they like to be introduced to my real live tiger? I took them down to the sculpture where they all had a good laugh and took a lot of photographs.
The reports came from a nearby neighbour but Simpson wasn't surprised:
It looks quite real, it's meant to look real and it is about 30 metres from the footpath so you can't see it very closely. The wire and resin artwork has been in place in woodlands near a public path for at least 20 years and is now "rather dilapidated.
As expected, officers had a good laugh at the scene before declaring to the public that there was no threat:
Officers, including armed officers, attended as a precaution and, following a search of the area, have established there was no animal and no risk to the public.
