WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES: One bloke says he was looking at a deer through a hedge in the Surrey Hills when he was set upon by a leopard adding: ‘I know it sounds mad but I also know what a leopard looks like’
A man claims he was savaged by a leopard – in leafy Surrey. The 69-year-old said he was left bleeding and with claw marks all over his body after being attacked by the beast.
He was walking in the Surrey Hills when he spotted a deer through a hedge and took some snaps. A light-coloured creature “with dark spots” then leapt at the hoofed animal before jumping onto him and clawing away, he claims. It comes as TV icon Ray Mears says big cats are ARE roaming the UK.
The bloke, who wishes to remain nameless, said: “I’m embarrassed to even be talking about it because I know it sounds mad. I know people will think I’m crazy. But I also know what a leopard looks like. This wasn’t a dog or a cat. It was a leopard – with its dark spots and all. That’s a fact.”
He added: “The deer screeched and leapt through the hedge towards me – and I realised there was a large animal latched onto its back and side.
“They knocked me over and the deer fled but the thing landed on me and started clawing at my neck and shoulder. I went to push it away with my right hand and that’s when I realised it was a huge cat.
I sort of hit it and it ran off, and I was left lying there, dazed.”
He has been left with claw marks on his face, neck, right arm, knee, and shoulder, as well as a sprained ankle. He said: “I was so completely shocked. I just couldn’t believe it. I don’t think it meant to attack me. It was hunting the deer – and I was in the way.”
And it’s not the first time a suspected big cat has been spotted in Surrey.
Local resident Gary Ridley runs the website Surrey Panther Watch – which invites people to log their sightings in the hope he can “conclusively prove that big cats are living wild in Surrey”.
He has compiled dossiers recording hundreds of sightings across the county and previously told the BBC he is convinced five big cats are in the wild within a 10-mile radius of Guildford.
Mr Ridley, a builder, told the broadcaster: “Since the 1960s, Surrey residents have described encounters with large, cat-like beasts, some black, some tan. Many sightings report a labrador-sized black cat, similar in appearance to a panther or puma, as well as sandy-coloured pumas and lynx.
“I’m absolutely convinced they are here in Surrey from evidence that I’ve seen.”
Reports of big cats in Britain have long persisted – but conclusive evidence has never been found. The man involved in the recent ‘leopard’ sighting considered going to hospital to have his injuries treated – but decided against it as he thought no one would believe him.
He said: “I did think, ‘Should I go to hospital?’ But I thought I’d be asked about what happened and people would think I’m a nutter.
“They’d laugh at me. I haven’t told anyone as I don’t want my reputation to be marred. People would just think I drunk too much that day or watched too many nature programmes. But I know what I saw.”
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