Most of us have heard the tale of the tiger who came to tea, but what about the one who popped in for a catnap?

Amid devastating floods in the Indian state of Assam, a female tiger fled the wildlife park where she was being kept and wound up relaxing on a bed inside a nearby home in Harmuti.

She was first seen prowling along a local highway some 200m (656ft) from Kaziranga National Park on Thursday morning, and is believed to have sought refuge in the house after being disturbed by traffic.

Officials from the Wildlife Trust of India were called to usher her out of the bed after being found by the startled resident, who gathered his family and ran away to await aid.

After creating a safe escape route for her, the big cat was guided in the direction of a jungle.

The original plan was to tranquillise the predator, but Rohini Ballave Saikia, deputy director of Kaziranga, said she was “calm and did not pose a danger”.

It remains to be seen whether the tiger will be returned to the park, where 92 animals have died in the floods.

Much of the park has been underwater due to heavy rain, with a member of the Indian Forest Service sharing an image of rhinos seeking shelter – and a rescue team seen pulling one calf on to a raft.

The Wildlife Trust has said some rhinos, deer and elephants have been lost track of because of the floods, but concerns over the well-being of the tigers are especially pronounced because of their endangered status.

Less than 4,000 of the animals now live in the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

The monsoon flooding has also had an impact on millions of people in India and beyond in recent weeks.

Bihar and Assam in the northeast of India have been hit particularly hard, as has Nepal.

The extreme rainfall across South Asia has killed more than 200 people, with more than 10 million thought to have been affected in total.

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