By Tim Binnall
An early morning commuter in England was left shaken when he went to catch his train and stumbled upon a sizeable feline that may have been an infamous big cat long rumored to roam the area. According to a local media report, the wild encounter recently occurred at the Wivenhoe railway station in the county of Essex. Arriving at approximately 5:30 AM to travel to work, the unnamed witness saw his normally routine commute take a frightening turn when he stepped onto the platform and realized he had some unexpected company: a monstrous-looking big cat.
"When I saw it, it looked huge and nothing like anything I had seen before," he recalled, marveling, "goodness knows what it was." Noting that being the only person at the station at the time of the encounter made the experience particularly unsettling, the witness fortunately managed to capture some footage of the mysterious feline (seen below) as it prowled around the platform. The commuter subsequently sent his video to county wildlife officials, but they were largely stumped by the strange scene.
"It doesn't look large enough for anything like a lynx, but I agree it is a very striking animal," said a representative from Essex Wildlife Trust. That said, they stopped short of declaring the creature a genuine big cat, musing that "it is possible it is a domestic animal with an interesting heritage." Be that as it may, many have suggested that the sizeable animal could be connected to the legendary Beast of Essex, a huge feline seen dozens of times throughout the county, but still considered something of an apocryphal tale. What do you make of the creature the commuter encountered? Weigh in with your thoughts at the C2C Facebook page.