Gwent | Archive | 2002 | September | 4
From the South Wales Argus, first published Wednesday 4th Sep 2002.
ARMED police were called in after two officers and a local resident spotted a black panther roaming near Newport. Peter Beese, pictured, said he spotted two large black cats while watching a kingfisher at the back of his garden in Shirebrook, near Goldcliff, yesterday morning. As later editions of the Argus reported yesterday, two helicopters fitted with thermal imaging equipment and police marksmen scoured the area. Mr Beese said: "In the last three years I have probably seen the cats 10 times. I was watching a kingfisher with a massive eel from my balcony. "I got my binoculars, went to look at it and then I saw the cat. I was watching it for about 20 minutes and it disappeared before the police arrived. He added another cat appeared and last saw the animals walking across a nearby farmyard. PC Mark Jones and PC Jodie Warren were the first officers on the scene. PC Jones said: "We ran out to the garden and saw the black head of a feline animal. "We believed it to be domestic, but then the animal broke cover and through binoculars we could quite clearly see then that it was far too large to be any sort of domestic animal. "It was about 2ft 6in tall with a quite strikingly long tail, slightly bigger than an Alsatian dog but more powerful and sleekly built. "Obviously we were quite taken aback because we turned up quite sceptical because there have been a number of sightings of such animals in this area. I was shocked more than anything because it's quite easy to disbelieve reports like this. But I'm convinced now that they are about." Police were stood down after they found a domestic black cat in a field nearby. A spokesman for Gwent police said: "These officers remain convinced that they saw something larger than what was found." A similar animal was reported in the area two years ago. Both sightings have been on farmer's William Baker's land. He said: "I have been farming here for 50 years and I have never seen one."
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