Mountain lion roams posh San Francisco neighborhood before being captured

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A 77-pound mountain lion set off a scramble Tuesday as it wandered through San Francisco’s wealthy Pacific Heights neighborhood before finally being captured as onlookers safely peered from their home windows or stood across the street.

Dozens of officials worked to capture and tranquilize the male cat after warnings were issued advising people to slowly back away if they encountered it.

The wild cat was first seen Monday morning.

Roxanne Blank was being dropped off outside her home around 3 a.m. Monday, when she saw the big cat nonchalantly walking down the streets and going up her apartment stoop, about half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from where the animal was caught Tuesday.

“I thought it was a dog at first, but then I saw the tail and realized that it’s not a dog. Then it tripped the light sensor, and that’s when I saw its face and was like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s a mountain lion!’” Blank said Tuesday.

She said she calmly pulled out her phone and began recording as the mountain lion “locked eyes” with her for over five minutes.

“We were just staring at each other, but I felt really calm, and I felt like maybe the mountain lion was calm,” she said. "I just stood there in awe of like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe this is happening to me.’”

A few minutes later, the wild cat began walking down the stairs and took off running when Blank's dog started barking from inside her apartment, Blank said. She then called 911.

Madrey Hilton took video of the animal later Monday morning and alerted authorities, she told the San Francisco Chronicle.

The mountain lion was found Tuesday hiding in a garden between two apartment buildings, San Francisco Fire Department Lt. Mariano Elias said. Authorities shot the feline with tranquilizers three times “to make sure it was completely unconscious,” Elias said. “They covered his eyes and bound its paws, just to make sure it wasn’t going to run anywhere.”

Veterinarians with the San Francisco Zoo then examined the cat before it was placed in a cage. It will undergo further testing to ensure it is healthy and then released to the wild, Elias said.

The 2-year-old male cougar was tagged and last spotted in Saratoga, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of San Francisco, he said. Cougars, mountain lions, panthers and pumas are the same cat species — puma concolor, according to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance website.

Mountain lion sightings are rare in San Francisco, where coyotes abound.

In 2020, a young mountain lion was spotted sleeping in a planter box along a normally busy street and looking at his reflection in the glass of an office tower in downtown San Francisco. The animal was later safely captured and released into the wild.

Experts say the animals come up along the Pacific coast from the hills south of the city, but eventually find their way back to the wilderness.

Angela Yip, a spokesperson for the city's Animal Care and Control, said there was no threat to the public.

Mountain lions also live in Los Angeles, one of the world’s only megacities of 10 million-plus, where large felines thrive by breeding, hunting and maintaining territory within urban boundaries.

Carlos Almendarez, who lives with his family across the street from where the mountain lion was caught in San Francisco, said the wild cat was all everyone was talking about in his neighborhood, but that didn't deter him or his running club from going on a run Tuesday morning.

“It probably would had been a smarter idea to not go on a run, but we were in a group, so I figured it would be safe,” said Almendarez, who is from Los Angeles.

“In LA, mountain lions are local celebrities,” he said. “Here I’ve seen coyotes right in front of the building, in the park, on the sidewalk, but I had never heard of mountain lions.”

This photo provided by San Francisco Animal Care and Control shows Dr. Adrian Mutlow, left, chief veterinarian at the San Francisco Zoo, examining a mountain lion after it was tranquilized, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in San Francisco. (San Francisco Animal Care and Control via AP)

California Fish and Wildlife officials carry a tranquilized mountain lion in a cage after it was captured on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Andy Bao)

Police block a street during a search for a mountain lion in a neighborhood Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Andy Bao)

An animal control officer stands in front where a mountain lion has been trapped between buildings in neighborhood in San Francisco, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Bao)

A sign warns of mountain lions in a neighborhood on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Andy Bao)

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday toured a southern town in Sicily where days of heavy rains from a cyclone triggered a massive landslide that cleaved off the town's edge, collapsing houses and forcing the evacuation of over 1,500 people.

The area of the landslide spanned 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) and civil protection crews created a 150-meter-wide (150-yard-wide) “no go zone.” At the edge of Niscemi, some cars and structures had already tumbled 20 meters (yards) off the cliff while other homes remained perched perilously on the edge of the continuously shifting ground.

Authorities warned that residents with homes in the area, facing the city of Gela on Sicily’s southwestern coast, will have to find long-term alternatives to moving back since the water-soaked ground was too unstable.

“The entire hill is collapsing onto the plain of Gela,” civil protection chief Fabio Ciciliano said. “To be honest, there are houses located on the edge of the landslide that obviously can no longer be inhabited, so we need to work with the mayor to find a permanent relocation for these families.”

The federal government included Niscemi in a state of emergency declaration on Monday for several southern regions and set aside an initial 100 million euros ($120 million), though Sicilian regional officials estimated on Wednesday the overall damage at 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion).

Meloni took a helicopter tour of the landslide area and met with local and regional officials at the town hall but didn't immediately comment.

Located just inland from Gela, Niscemi is no stranger to landslides. The town was built on layers of sand and clay that become particularly permeable in heavy rain and have shifted before, most recently in a major 1997 landslide that forced the evacuation of 400 people, geologists say.

“Today, the situation is repeating itself with even more significant characteristics: the landslide front extends for about 4 kilometers and directly affects the houses facing the slope,” warned Giovanna Pappalardo, professor of applied geology at the island's University of Catania.

The latest landslide, which began on Sunday with Cyclone Harry battering southern Italy, has revived political mud-slinging about why construction was allowed on land which, because of its geological makeup, has a high risk of landslides.

The center-right regional president of Sicily, Renato Schifani, acknowledged such questions were legitimate. But he noted he had only been in office for a few years and said the main issue was an institutional response to help residents immediately affected.

The opposition center-left Democratic Party leader, Elly Schlein, meanwhile, proposed Meloni's government reallocate 1 billion euros approved for its controversial bridge from Sicily to the Italian mainland and direct it toward storm-hit regions, since the bridge project is currently tied up in court challenges.

Aerial view of the village of Niscemi near the Sicilian town of Caltanissetta, southern Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, where severe storms provoked a landslide, and some 1,500 people had to be evacuated from their homes. (Alberto Lo Bianco/LaPresse via AP)

Aerial view of the village of Niscemi near the Sicilian town of Caltanissetta, southern Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, where severe storms provoked a landslide, and some 1,500 people had to be evacuated from their homes. (Alberto Lo Bianco/LaPresse via AP)

Aerial view of the village of Niscemi near the Sicilian town of Caltanissetta, southern Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, where severe storms provoked a landslide, and some 1,500 people had to be evacuated from their homes. (Alberto Lo Bianco/LaPresse via AP)