MADRID – Spanish police said Tuesday they were looking for a lioness that had been sighted by several witnesses on the loose in the mountains of eastern Spain.

A group of youths notified municipal police after they spotted the beast on Saturday near the village of La Senia in the province of Tarragona.

Since then several other witnesses in the area south of Barcelona have said they have also seen the lioness.

Police said they were taking the reports seriously and were concentrating their search in the mountains of Ports de Beseit on the border of the provinces of Tarragona, Teruel and Castellon.

It was not clear where the lioness came from although Spanish media reported that the animal may have escaped from a circus.