Fife residents are once again on the lookout for a big cat, following a fresh sighting in Culross.

Two men believe they spotted a panther while out hunting rabbits last Tuesday.

James McGarry said his suspicions were raised when he and his friend Alan Yates entered a field near Balgownie.

The 25-year-old said: "It was a really bright night and the moon was out - I thought it was strange because there were no rabbits about.
 
"We started scanning the field and saw a pair of green eyes among the bushes - it was enormous and we could make out an outline although it was jet black."

The apprentice plumber and tiler said he was around 50 yards away from the beast when he spotted it.

He added: "It looked scared - we started to walk towards it but it started to run up the field and covered a lot of land very quickly, about four or five feet at a time.  

"We saw its long black tail and it was about two foot high." 

The sighting follows three separate cases in which walkers said they had spotted a lynx.

All three sightings took place within a ten mile radius in West Fife in August and September and the Big Cats in Britain group believe all were of the same animal.