9 traders arrested as police rescue Siberian tiger cub

Nine suspects have been arrested as police in central China successfully rescued an endangered Siberian tiger cub, which was being illegally traded.

Forestry police in Sanmenxi city, Henan province, said Wednesday the four-month-old cub was found and rescued in an abandoned house carved out of a mountain on July 16 in the city, where the smugglers were attempting to sell it.

A zoo keeper in east China's Shandong Province intended to buy the cub for 255,000 yuan ($41,409), the suspects told police.

Forestry authorities confirmed the 50-cm-long cub to be a Siberian tiger.

Police travelled to six provinces to hunt down the suspects. Two others are still on the run.

Police also recovered a piece of tiger skin, two pythons, an iguana, five lizards and a wild cat, all endangered species under protection.

The source of the tiger cub and other details are still under investigation.

Siberian tigers, one of the world's rarest mammals, live mainly in eastern Russia, northeast China and northern parts of the Korean Peninsula. Fewer than 500 Siberian tigers remain in the wild.

China registers its own number of wild Siberian tigers between 18 and 22.

In April, a Siberian tiger smuggler was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for illegally purchasing a dead Siberian tiger by a court in east China's Zhejiang province.