Man sees large black cat with 'yellow eyes' while driving along the M56 near Chester Services

The witness, called Howard, saw the creature while travelling along the inside lane of the motorway at Elton.

The Elton sighting added to the Puma Watch interactive map

He reported the sighting to Puma Watch North Wales, the group set up to investigate and document such encounters in the region.

The group has received more and more reports from over the border Cheshire and Shropshire.

Howard said: “I was travelling to work from Flint on the M56. I was on the inside lane at approx 60mph.

“I spotted the animal in a farmers field to my left, it jumped out of a drainage ditch in the field and lay down on its belly like it was in hunting mode.

“It was looking at the sheep in the field, as I passed it I got a very good look at it, it was the size of a large dog but was unmistakably a large cat.

“It turned its head as I passed and I could see yellow in its eyes."

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He added: “I kept it in sight in my wing mirror as I went by and saw it turn and go back down into the drainage ditch, seemingly spooked by the noise of the traffic.

“I did consider going to try and find the farm that evening that the fields belong to so I could warn the farmer, but was unable to work out where the farm was.”

Chester Services, Elton. Image: Google StreetView

Tony Jones, of Puma Watch, said the border of England and North Wales was becoming a hotspot for sightings.

He said: "The location is particularly close to another sighting on the M56 near Chester Costco, along with several others around the Stanlow area and in Ellesmere Port. Chester, just a few miles to the south on the Welsh border, has become a big cat hotspot in its own right.

"Howard’s sighting has now been added to our interactive map.

"Howard’s encounter took place back in April 2019 at around 9am one morning. More recently, a big cat was caught on camera in Frodsham, just a few miles from Elton, then another sighting occurred on the outskirts of the town.

"In Chester, on Friday 16th April, someone spotted what could have been a puma near Blacon, at a location well under a mile from four other recent sightings. Just along the canal to the North, a large, black animal with a very long tail was spotted twice within a week, around the abandoned Old Oaks Golf Course and the Countess of Chester Country Park.

"The sightings followed a 4ft-long cat “with a great big tail” being spotted twice in one night in fields bordering Blacon, behind Sealand Road Asda."

"A member of the public reported an encounter with a “growing and snarling” creature in Huntington’s Caldy Valley Nature Park, while in December, a big cat was caught on camera prowling Chester Meadows.

"Big cats have also been spotted across the Wirral."