Two tigers have escaped from a big cat shelter near a small Dutch village and remain free after a tranquiliser dart fired by police failed to take effect.

The two – Benghal tigers named Radjah and Dehli – remained on the shelter’s land, although the fences were reported to be too weak to contain them.

Residents in the nearby northern village of Oldeberkoop, population 1,500, were warned to stay indoors.

“Tigers in sight,” police tweeted after launching a search with a helicopter and a veterinarian with a tranquiliser gun.

“We are now going to try to bring them back to the shelter.”

They later said one of the two had been shot with a tranquiliser dart, but that it had not taken effect. “Still trying to tranquilise the animals,” they added.

They tweeted an aerial shot of one of the tigers roaming the shelter’s wooded terrain.

– Reuters