ANOTHER big cat sighting has been reported in Chester.

In the latest encounter, a large black creature was spotted less than a mile from Chester Zoo in the early hours of Thursday morning last week.

The witness was driving through the Upton area of Chester at 2.30am when he spotted the large animal lurking near a hedgerow on Plas Newton Lane.

The man called Gareth, who asked for his surname not to be used, reported the sighting to Puma Watch North Wales, a group set up to document and investigate such encounters in the region.

Gareth said: “I was driving along and I saw a large cat at the side of the road near the hedgerow.”

Chester Zoo confirmed that the animal does not belong to them.

A Chester Zoo spokesperson told Puma Watch: “The cat you’ve mentioned is not from Chester Zoo.”

It comes just days after a cat-like creature was spotted in Whitby Park in Ellesmere Por.

The Chester sighting also comes after multiple reports of encounters with a "big cat" on Chester Meadows.

Tony Jones, of Puma Watch, said: "Also in recent weeks, a worker spotted a big cat in the same area, when a footprint was also found at Ince Marshes. And way back in 2011, someone called 999 after spotting a tiger roaming wild along the River Dee.

"Last month, Cheshire Police announced they were investigating whether “a larger predator” was responsible for a series of sheep killings, saying that “a large, black-cat type animal” had been spotted nearby.

"Big cats such as pumas are solitary with a hunting range of dozens of miles. They’re mostly spotted in Snowdonia and the Clwydian hills but reports of sightings in urban locations some distance from these areas are becoming more frequent.

"As seen with Llandudno’s now-famous goats, who have taken to roaming the town’s deserted streets during the coronavirus lockdowns, it’s likely that the reduced levels of human activity over the last year is encouraging big cats to roam further from the hills into more populated areas.

"When big cats were banned as pets in the 1970s, it was legal to release them into the countryside to avoid expensive rehoming costs. Owners from across the UK travelled to areas like Wales to release their cats in the remote environment, where small but significant populations have thrived ever since."