Police and firefighters were desperately hunting for a tiger on the loose near Paris Thursday after a local resident spotted the fearsome animal in a car park and sounded the alert, authorities said.

Backed up by a helicopter overhead, firefighters armed with tranquilising guns were mobilised for the search in the Seine-et-Marne district near the French capital.

"We have been running after it since this morning, police officers are trying to intercept it," a police source said.

A woman spotted the animal in a supermarket car park in the town of Montevrain on Thursday morning.

"My wife saw it this morning," Jean-Baptiste Berdeaux, who manages the Intermarche supermarket, told AFP.

"She didn't get out of the car and called me to say 'I think I saw a lynx'," he said, adding she took a photo of the animal and the couple then alerted police officers nearby.

It is as yet unclear where the tiger comes from.