STAFF at supported living accommodation have captured what they believe could be a big cat on their CCTV system several times over the weekend.

The cat was first caught on camera at Green Pastures accommodation in Holywell at 2.08am on Friday.

Since then, a cat-like creature has been caught several times on the system.

The creature is cat-like in shape and movement, but it is difficult to gauge whether it is larger than a domestic moggy.

The animal in the footage seems to be grey or brown, rather than jet black in other sightings by people who think they've seen pumas or panthers here in North Wales.

Housing manager Pauline Jones said she has watched the footage several times on her laptop and is convinced the creature, which she describes as "walking like a lion", is too big to be a domestic cat.

"It's quite difficult because the camera that it is on has mesh around it. At first I couldn't make out what it was so I transferred it from my phone to my laptop. I thought there's no way that's a cat, it must be somebody's dog - but if you look at its tail and the way it is walking there is no way it is a dog.

"It turns to look at something and you can see it has a cat-like head, but it also has a really long tail. You can see it's not a normal cat. When you look at him or her walking it has a different gait to a domestic cat, the way it lifts its paws is more like a dog, they are bigger and heavier.

There have been a number of big cat sightings in North Wales, Shropshire and Chester in 2020 and 2021.

There have been reports of big cat sightings in North Wales since at lease the 1970s, with areas like the Clwydian Hills and Snowdonia believed to be a suitable habitat for a small population of pumas or other big cats.