A motorist has been arrested after he was spotted driving with a three-month-old Bengal tiger inside his car.

The 22-year-old man, identified only as Angel N., was reported to police by concerned residents who reportedly saw him travelling with the wild animal around Nezahualcoyotl, a municipality in south-central Mexico.

Detectives immediately began searching for the black Baic x25 vehicle and it was not long before they located it along with its owner.

They discovered Angel illegally owned a three-month-old Bengal tiger and arrested him on 15th August.

Video footage shows the seemingly healthy cub lying on the floor inside a glass cage with a collar around its neck.

Additional images show the tiger perching up on the steering wheel inside Angel’s car as if it were a domestic kitten.

Angel reportedly claimed that the cub was legally his and that his father, Gabriel N., had bought it from a farm for MXN 75,000 (GBP 3,448).

His father soon arrived and brought the purported documents that claimed the acquisition of the tiger cub, but the officers determined that nowhere in these documents did it establish the legality of the exchange.

As a result, the cub was seized, and the father was also detained to provide his statement.

The detainees were handed over to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Texcoco, where their legal status will be determined.

Meanwhile, the cub was taken to the Los Reyes Zoo in La Paz.

The Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is one of the largest wild cats that mainly inhabits India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and parts of China.

It is listed as ‘endangered’ on the ICUN Red List and is greatly threatened by poaching and loss of habitat.

it is estimated that there are only between 2,600 and 4,000 Bengali tigers left in the whole world.