Police officers in Germany who responded to a new report of an escaped lioness were surprised to find that it was only a cuddly toy.

The incident occurred when a concerned caller – who has not been named – alerted the cops claiming they had just seen the same animal that triggered a massive police operation on Thursday, 20th July.

A spokesperson for the Berlin Police said that patrol crews rushed to the Finkenpark in the area of Dahlem, Berlin, immediately after having received the call at 6.45pm on Tuesday, 1st August.

But soon after the police were able to give the all-clear after it turned out that the alleged predator was only a cuddly toy placed on top of an electric junction box.

Berlin Police said in a statement obtained by Newsflash: “A man informed a colleague of ours in the Finkenpark in Dahlem yesterday.”

They continued: “This time there is no doubt, it is not a wild boar. False alarm, it was a stuffed animal.”

Explaining that no further measures were taken, the spokesperson said: “The caller thought it was real.”

The report followed just a few weeks after a video of what was thought to be a lioness munching on a wild boar down a street in Berlin went viral on social media platforms.

Officials at the time issued alerted citizens in south Berlin not to leave their homes, and deployed hunters with tranquiliser guns and helicopters with thermal imaging cameras to find the fugitive female lion.

But after 36 hours of searching, a detailed analysis of the mobile phone footage revealed that the animal lacked the physical characteristics of a lioness, with the authorities suspecting that it was in fact a wild boar.

The same was later confirmed by researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) who examined a hair sample of the animal and said that “with a probability bordering on certainty it is not a cat hair”.

A similar incident prompted an abrupt response by police in Brazil after a caller at the municipality of Curitibanos, in the state of Santa Catarina, asked them if there was a circus in town, because a polar bear had apparently been spotted roaming around the area.

But upon arrival, the officers realised that the alleged polar bear – running between cars on a busy road – was in fact a harmless sheep.