After escaping from a circus, a tiger enjoyed only one night of freedom before ending up dead.

The tiger escaped during a performance in the Henan county of Yuanyang. Video from the scene shows the animal climbing the walls of the circus cage as trainers try unsuccessfully to make it come down. Soon, chaos erupts as audience members flee for their lives.

The tiger fled into a nearby cornfield. Afterward, local authorities launched an all-out tiger hunt with police using drones, dogs, and thermal imaging equipment to search for the animal overnight while alerting residents about the situation.

Police finally managed to track down the tiger at around 10 am the following morning and shoot it with a tranquilizer dart. It was then transported to a local zoo but was found dead on arrival.

While the animal’s cause of death has not been officially determined, a zookeeper told reporters that it appeared to have suffered injuries consistent with getting hit by a car.

Meanwhile, two individuals in charge of the circus have been detained. It turns out that this performance was their first. It was not government-sanctioned, and it was performed in front of an audience of local schoolchildren.

This isn’t the first time in China that a circus tiger has managed to break loose. The same thing happened during a performance in Shanxi province in 2017. However, tigers have done much more damage to people when the people decide to leave the safety of their cages.