Sally Bolton (15) said she saw a feline creature the size of a labrador, similar to the one pictured left, crossing the A47 near Billesdon as her mum drove her home from a school parent’s evening on Thursday last week.

She told the Mail: “Me and my mum noticed something odd in the middle of the road.

“We stopped the car in astonishment to see a large black cat staring back at us.

“As the headlights shone on the animal my mum noticed its green eyes shining back at us.

“It was much bigger than a fox – about the size of a labrador – but with a cat-like face and a much more muscly figure.

“We both knew that this animal was not a domestic cat.

“Its tail was long, black, thin and rounded at the tip.”

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After looking at the pair for a few seconds, the animal bounded across the road and headed into a grass verge towards Billesdon.

“The way its body moved was very strange, like no other animal I have ever seen before,” said Sally.

When Sally got home she carried out some internet research and discovered the Rutland and Leicestershire Panther Watch group, who she contacted to report her sighting.

The group was formed by David Spencer after he had a close encounter with a big black cat outside his home in Knossington, near Oakham, back in 1995.

Speaking to the Mail, his son Nigel said: “We’ve received hundreds of reports of sightings in the last ten to 15 years. The last one we heard about was near Gretton on the Rutland/Northants border but I don’t think this is the same animal.

“There are so many sightings across such a wide area that it can’t be the same animal. I think this one is the same cat sometimes seen in the Langtons.”

There have been numerous black cat sightings reported in the Mail since 1996, with sightings in Arthingworth, Maidwell, Kibworth, East Farndon and even Harborough itself.

Mr Spencer said many big cats seen across the country are pet lynx, puma or panthers which have been brought into the country illegally and then released by their owners.

“They can live between 10 and 15 years,” he added.

“People wonder how they can survive but they don’t need that much food – two rabbits a day will do them.

“If they killed a deer that would be a week’s food. They’re not dangerous to humans.

“The only worrying thing is that we’ve had quite a lot of incidents with drivers who’ve had to take evasive action to avoid them when they’ve encountered them on the roads.”