North Essex: Look out – the beast is back (From Gazette)
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North Essex: Look out – the beast is back
9:04am Wednesday 7th November 2007 in Features By Andrea Collitt
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Beast sighting - the fields just off the A120 between Ramsey and Wix, where the Beast of Essex was allegedly sighted.Picture: TERRY WEEDEN (57786-3)
A "beast" has been spotted roaming the Essex countryside, spurring speculation that an exotic species has survived.
An eagle-eyed man saw the animal, reportedly similar to a black panther, as he drove to work along a stretch of the A120.
Ray Chesworth, an aerial installer from Harwich, said: "I was driving along the road on my way to my first job of the day and as I looked around, I saw a black object in a field."
Mr Chesworth, 48, was driving past a turn-off at Primrose Lane, which runs parallel to Ramsey, when he saw the animal yesterday about 9.10am.
"It was a huge cat, you can tell how a cat walks, it is not like how a dog walks, it was all shoulders and swaggering. I thought that's a panther'," he said.
He said the mystery cat was just three or four feet away from a fence at the edge of the field, by the lane.
When Mr Chesworth tried to slow down to get a better look, he was tail-gated by a lorry.
"My plan was to turn into the lay-by but I didn't have time to pull in. I looked in my wing mirror and then I couldn't see anything.
"If I had the chance I would have gone over and had a look," he said.
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