POLICE in Malmesbury are calling in an expert to help find a big cat spotted around Minety, just weeks after an animal dubbed the Minety Monster savaged lambs and ewes.

Sgt Kier Pritchard, of Malmesbury police, said that three or four people have reported seeing a large animal, like a puma, in the Minety area over the past month.

The latest sighting was at at 1pm on Sunday, March 24.

June Roberts, 40, from Shaw, in Swindon, was walking in Ravensroost Wood, near Minety, with daughter, Joanne, ten, and husband Graham, 41, when she spotted a big cat.

"I was petrified," said Mrs Roberts, a finance assistant at Swindon Borough Council.

"At the time I thought, oh my God, I've seen a wild cat, how fantastic.

"But then my husband went to investigate, to prove that what I had seen was a deer. Then I just wanted to get out of there."

Mrs Roberts said the animal passed about 50 yards in front of her, near a wooden cabin, and was about the size of a puma and sandy brown in colour.

"It was probably about the height of an alsation dog but longer, and it was cat-shaped and sleek, rather than being dog-like," she added.

She said the animal was muscular around the shoulders, and had a two-inch thick wide tail that curled down to the ground, and up again, with a 4in white tip at the bottom.

Mrs Roberts said she and her family visit the wood, which is owned by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, about three times a year.

"I have lived in Swindon for 20 years, and been visiting the wood for ten years, and have never seen anything like this," she added.

Sgt Pritchard said he is concerned someone could be attacked, and he will be seeking expert advice on what to do next.

"Through expert guidance we need to find a means of catching it safely." he said.

In the space of a week at the end of February the so-called Minety monster savaged lambs and ewes on farms around Minety, with 22 found dead.

The attacks all took place at night, and the animal, which farmers thought could be a huge dog, was never seen.

Philip Scott, 43, who owns Ferndale Farm, found two ewes dead on February 12, and moved his flock of 250 on to different land, only to find ten more dead on February 16.

His brother, Bill, of Ravenshurst farm, lost three sheep.

Martin Francis, another nearby farmer , lost seven ewes.

On March 7 a Minety woman reported seeing an animal, some weeks previously, bigger than an Alsation, with a black bushy tail, near the bottom of a field near the Silver Street crossroads.