A runaway grow-up Siberia tiger wandered on an expressway for about four hours after finally being tamed Tuesday morning outside Changchun, the capital of Northeast China's Jilin Province.

The 18-year-old runaway Siberia tiger. [newsphoto.com.cn]

The 18-year old male tiger, named Huishan King, accompanying other three tigers, was on the way back to a tiger zoo in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province, after a performance in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province, on Monday, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The truck driver found that the big cat was trying to break the cage after two hours of driving, only around 100 kilometres from Changchun. Its head and one leg had broken through. The driver managed to contact the local traffic police, which dispatched a team to guard the truck at around 10:30 pm.

About 20 minutes later, the tiger finally escaped from the cage and jumped off from the truck. But luckily enough, it only roamed along the highway and its companions did not follow him, remaining in the cage.

About 100 policemen from local police office and forestry departments immediately closed in from two ends of the expressway and shut down the road in case passing vehicles might anger him.

The tiger and the human stood facing each other in the chilly wind, despite freezing temperatures.

In the meantime, a vet from a local zoo was called upon up to deal with the dangerous animal.

"It's really a big boy,'' said Liang Hongguo, the veteran vet. Its weight was around 200 kilograms, which was rather rare, Liang said.

Only 2 metres from the tiger, Liang used a steel blowpine from a squad car to hit and paralyse the tiger.

The narcotic worked and 15 mimnutes later, the tiger fell into a deep sleep. It was then sent to a local zoo to receive further treatment. Doctors said the tiger was only wounded slightly when jumping off the truck.

And it started the trip to Harbin again around 10 o'clock Tuesday morning. Nobody was hurt during the entire process.

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