BERLIN, March 12 (AFP) - A cat in Germany escaped with just a burnt paw after travelling at speeds of up to 160 kilometres (100 miles) per hour on the motorway under the bonnet of a car, Bild newspaper reported on Friday.

Loud miaowing alerted driver Axel Sydow, 24, to his unwilling passenger only at the end of his 54-kilometre journey from Berlin to the town of Koenigs Wusterhausen.

"I couldn't see her from above. Underneath I then spotted her head and a leg. She obviously crawled up there to sleep earlier because the engine was warm," Sydow told the paper.

Emergency services were called and were forced to remove the front wheel of the Volkswagen Golf and the engine covering before what the paper called "Berlin's fastest cat" could be freed.