Search for missing zoo animals extends to Gori

Updated: 5.58pm

The "unusually large animal prints” seen in one village in central Georgia that locals thought belonged to a big cat has turned out to be a dog's footprints. 

Georgia's Crisis Management Team issued a statement saying specialists had checked the prints in Rekha village and they determined the prints belonged to a dog. 

Meanwhile, a white tiger and striped hyena that went missing from Tbilisi Zoo after the June 13 deadly flash flood are still unaccounted for.

Earlier: 12.29pm

Officials searching for a white tiger and striped hyena are extending their search area after animal prints were found in a small town about an hour from Tbilisi.

The animals escaped Tbilisi Zoo seven days ago in the June 13 flash flood which destroyed most of Tbilisi Zoo and the surrounding area.

Today authorities spent the day searching for the tiger near the town of Gori, 76 kilometers west of Georgia's capital Tbilisi.

Search efforts began in Rekha village, Gori region after a local resident called the 112 emergency phone number and said he saw a lion in the village.

All the lions of Tbilisi Zoo have been accounted for in the days after the flood so the animal allegedly seen near Gori could not be a lion, but authorities began a search in the area for the missing white tiger. 

Several village locals said they saw "unusually large animal prints” in the centre of the village.

Meanwhile officials said 40 calls were made to the emergency number 112 about wild animals overnight but none of the alleged sightings have been confirmed.

The tiger and hyena have been missing for seven days. About 30 wild animals escaped Tbilisi Zoo when the zoo was flooded and mostly destroyed last Saturday night. About half of the zoo's animals died in the disaster, while the animals who lived in the upper part of the zoo survived. Apart from the hyena an tiger, all other animals have been accounted for.