LYON, Tuesday 24 August 2010 (AFP) - Police and wildlife experts have launched a search for two baby alligators that escaped from a zoo in southern France, an official said on Tuesday.

The 90-centimetre (three-foot) long reptiles, originally from China, went missing from the Crocodile Farm near the town of Pierrelatte late last month, a police official said.

Worth "several tens of thousands of euros" (dollars) each, they were first thought to have been stolen but recent evidence suggests they are prowling around between a cornfield and a disused canal.

"Traces of their presence have been discovered and we now have a good hope of finding them," the official added, warning that the alligators could not survive the cold of the winter outdoors.

"These are young alligators with jaws hardly any bigger than a poodle's, so no one will get eaten."