Paris: A healthy six-week-old female lion cub has been discovered on a child's bed in a southern Paris apartment and a 30-year-old man has been arrested.

French newspaper Le Parisien reports the man was found hiding in a cupboard in his neighbour's apartment where he had fled with the cub when police turned up on Tuesday.

Police were alerted to the cub's existence after seeing videos on social media suggesting a man was wanting to sell the cub for €10,000 ($16,200).