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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Tim Hanlon

'Petrified' driver films big cat stalking village and fears it's actually legendary beast

Footage shows a prowling big cat that a "petrified" man filmed in a Welsh village that could be a legendary beast.

Morgan Taylor, 22, said the animal may have been up to two metres big having spotted it in Rassau, Blaenau Gwent, where he was making a delivery.

"I was driving back home and I'd seen something in the bushes that looked a bit irregular," he said.

"So I slowed down in my car - my windows were down at this point - and as it approached out of the bushes, I put my windows straight up.

"At first, I thought it was a leopard. I can't lie. It was massive. I don't wanna say it was as big as a toddler - it was even bigger.

An image of the animal spotted in Blaenau Gwent (Credit: Pen News/Morgan Taylor)

"The video doesn't do it justice. It was about a meter and a half, maybe two meters at a push - it was a very, very big cat."

Morgan, from nearby Blaina, recorded the sighting on Wednesday using his phone.

In his footage, a large cat with spots like a jaguar or leopard is seen prowling along the roadside.

Mr Taylor said: "I was petrified; that's the only word I can tell you. I felt like I'd seen a ghost. At first glance I thought it was going to be coming for me because it was a big cat.

A debate has started over what type of animal it is (Credit: Pen News/Morgan Taylor)
Morgan said he was left "petrified" (Credit: Pen News/Morgan Taylor)

"It made no noises, it just looked like it was investigating something."

After the footage was posted on Facebook, it sparked intense debate.

It particularly divided Britain's big cat believers - a community which maintains that the UK has an elusive population of wild big cats.

Some said it was a lynx, perhaps a bobcat, or even a leopard.

One person called it: "Absolutely clear and probably the best, most definitive footage of a big cat I've seen."

Some people have said it is a lynx (Credit: Pen News/Morgan Taylor)
Others believe it is a domestic cat (Credit: Pen News/Morgan Taylor)

Others suggested it was a Savannah cat, a Bengal, or another large domestic cat - and said one was known to be living in a nearby village.

Morgan said: "My wife says a Savannah cat but I'm determined it was a lynx. It looked like a leopard cub that was just growing up."

The experience has made Mr Taylor believe that there are big cats living wild in Britain too.

"Now I've seen this, yes, 100% I believe there is," he said.

If he's right, it looks like there could be a Beast of Blaenau running free.

And he's got a message for the doubters too.

"I'd say come down to Rassau and come have a look yourself, because trust me they'll be turning around and running away," he said.

"I'm lucky because I was in my car because otherwise I'd have run for miles; I wouldn't have looked back either."

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