Hunt is on to find big cat roaming countryside

Night vision scopes and cage traps are to be deployed in a bid to catch an escaped big cat prowling the countryside.

Kevin Murphy, who runs Norfolk Wildlife Rescue, told the BBC he would attempt to capture the feline, believed to be a Savannah cat, first spotted on Tuesday night in the Bramerton area, near Norwich.

It is thought to have escaped from an enclosure and Murphy has been in touch with a man who believed he was the owner of the exotic pet.

A Savannah cat is a hybrid breed created by crossing a serval, which is native to sub-Saharan Africa, with a domesticated cat breed.

"I have spoken to a gentleman who said it was his cat and I am going to help him catch it," said Murphy.

"It poses no danger to the public. It is a friendly animal and will be nervous of people if anyone tried to approach it."

Murphy said the cat was likely to have been kept as a pet and had escaped from its enclosure.

He urged people to report any sightings, but hoped it would still be in the Bramerton area, somewhere between the A146 and the River Yare.

Owners of serval cats and first generation Savannah cats require a Dangerous Wild Animals (DWA) licence to keep them.

The tactics Murphy planned on using to catch the cat included using bait to lure it into a cage trap, using night vision scopes to detect it through body heat and potentially having to deploy a dart gun with a sedative as a last resort.

The cat was spotted by Tom Baker, 27, who lives in the village, on Tuesday evening.

He said he initially thought it was a large fox or deer, but, after zooming in on the animal with his camera, he saw it was a large cat that he thought resembled a "small leopard" at first.

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