Cat-and-mouse game: Mountain lion roams California backyards

AZUSA, Calif. – A mountain lion roamed through backyards in a neighbourhood outside Los Angeles before wildlife officers tranquilized it.

The lion was spotted Monday morning in the eastern Los Angeles County community of Azusa, near the San Gabriel Mountains wilderness.

TV news helicopters showed it pawing at the door of a home and jumping onto the roof of a shed, then leaping over a fence.

Azusa police contained the big cat until wildlife officers arrived and used social media to warn residents to stay indoors.

After being tranquilized, the sleeping lion was loaded onto a pickup truck to be moved out of the neighbourhood.