POLICE in Monmouth are appealing for calm after newspaper reports claimed a big cat was prowling the area.

A Welsh newspaper stated yesterday that there had been several sightings of a large black panther-like creature around the area in recent weeks, that the force helicopter had been used in the hunt and that the Army had been put on stand-by to deal with the situation.

It is almost exactly a year since the so-called Beast of Trellech attacked 11-year-old schoolboy Josh Hopkins, (pictured) leaving him with cuts and scratches to his face.

But a police spokeswoman said she believed some members of the Press were whipping up hysteria over a single sighting reported a week ago, which seemed to match the original description.

She said: "A man from Monmouth reported seeing two black cats at around 4.30pm last Tuesday in Vauxhall Fields, which is relatively close to the town centre. He said he was about 100 yards away and they looked like lynx and were about the size of a Dobermann.

"The three of them all just stood looking at each other for quite a long time, before the cats disappeared into the undergrowth.

"The sighting is being investigated, as we always take them seriously, but there was no need to use the force helicopter and the Army were not involved."

She explained that the Army would simply have been informed as a matter of course in a big cat sighting. Local farmers were also made aware of the situation so that they could take steps to protect their animals.

A spokeswoman for the Army, based in Brecon, confirmed they had not been placed on standby.

Police are also investigating a second possible incident at Shirenewton last Monday, when a woman spotted what she thought was a big cat near a fountain at a road junction. Police have asked anyone who sees such an animal to contact them immediately.