COULD the "beast of Brentwood" have made its way to leafy Laindon?

Two unsuspecting joggers think it might have done, after they got the shock of their lives and came face to face with a "panther-like" beast in Langdon Hills Country Park off Mandeville Way, near Laindon station.

Joe Packman and Bob Hearn, members of the Phoenix Striders running club, were jogging along a bridle path when they spied a big black cat.

Joe, 59, of Mopsies Road, Basildon, said: "It shot out in front of us and I thought to myself That's one hell of a big tabby cat'.

"But within seconds, I knew it was no ordinary domestic cat.

"It was far too big and too long and the way it moved was more predatory than normal cats."

Bob also saw it. He said: "It all happened so fast.

"Within a flash, the animal disappeared into some shrubbery.

"I've never seen anything like it."

Big cat sightings have been occurring in neighbouring Brentwood for years, giving rise to the Beast of Brentwood' legend.

Scores of sightings of the beast - said to be a black panther - have been reported in Weald Park.

Reports of the creature have become so common that it has been given the nickname Brandon by locals.

Bob, 47, from Laindon, said: "It could have been the Beast of Brentwood.

"I've heard these wild cats roam all over countryside."

Much research has now gone into the phenomenon of big cats roaming the UK countryside and killing livestock.

The problem is said to have sprung up during the 1970s, when hundreds of people who kept panthers or similar animals as exotic pets released them into the wild to avoid paying a hefty licence fee to keep them.