Father and son left shaken by "big cat" encounter

The witness this time was Andy Richards, of Cheshire, who was camping at the time outside The Marlbank Inn at Welland, which overlooks the Malverns.

Mr Richards who plans to move to Worcestershire in the near future, was left shaken, puzzled but adamant after his big cat encounter.

He said: "I would be happy to swear on the Bible as to what I saw, something which shocked both me and my son. We just legged it but I so wish I had taken a photo of it."

The sighting took place on Sunday, August 2, at 8pm.

Mr Richards said: "My son looked over the field and said there was a black Labrador in a field about 200m away from where we were sat."

Mr Richards, who is a dog lover, was concerned about the apparent stray; but he believed it was more more likely to be an Alsation, because of its pointy ears. He went to investigate.

He said: "We went to the field. I stood on the gate and and looked up the field to see a massive black cat with yellow eyes looking right at me. It was the size of an Alsation and about 75m away from me and looking right at me, in sitting down position.

"Needless to say we legged it. Later I told my wife who laughed at me. But she went onto the net and found out that I was not the only one to see a big black cat in Welland."

It is indeed not the first time that reports of big cats have reached the news desk of the Worcester News, and not the first time that the Welland area has been mentioned.

In 2009, Karen Allison of the group "Big Cats in Britain said: "The most common area to see big cats in Worcestershire was on the Malvern Hills, especially near Little Welland."

“There’s probably more than one up on the hills."

In 2006, a survey compiled by British Big Cats revealed there had been 48 sightings in Herefordshire and Worcestershire between April 2004 and July 2005, "making the county a hotspot for mystery sightings".

Now there is one more account for the record.