Police officers report big black cat sightings in rural Leicestershire

Three police officers have reported seeing a black panther in rural Leicestershire.

Off-duty Pc Mick Kaiser was jogging along a disused railway line near Shepshed, when he spotted a large black cat 25 metres ahead of him on the track.

Pc Kaiser described the cat as “over four feet long and two-foot-plus high with a long tail.

“I was a bit worried and took an unplanned diversion to the left. But the cat didn’t look at all concerned about me.”

Four days later, traffic officers Pc Darren Elsom and Pc Louise Raven saw what they think was the same cat further down the disused railway line.

This time it was at Ellistown four miles away from the first sighting.

The cat seen by the two other officers during a morning patrol was, they said, bigger than a large Alsatian.

“It was 300 metres away,” said Pc Elsom.

“But it was silhouetted against the skyline. There was no mistaking what it was.

“Eventually it ran off, gradually getting faster and faster. You could tell it was fairly powerful.”

Black panther expert, David Spencer, said: “These sound like very good sightings  very credible and impartial witnesses of what appears to be a panther.

“Big cats stick to railway lines because they’re isolated and they can hide in the tunnels. This is further evidence that the cats are out there.

“It’s very hard to question this sort of evidence”

The sightings follow several fatal and bloody attacks on sheep in the area.

• Find out why the black sheep is hiding from the panther here