A person dressed in a catsuit has been terrorising locals after being spotted prowling along secluded paths in Merseyside.
The figure, dressed in a skin-tight black cat suit and mask, was captured on camera meowing and writhing on the ground near Wallasey Beach.
Footage shows the person wriggling under a fence near a Harvester pub and prancing along a path.
Another video shows people in a car screaming as the figure approaches close by.
Residents claim he resembles a ‘banshee,’ ‘urban jaguar’ and even a ‘gimp’ and locals like Abbie Gilbert have had enough.
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She posted on Facebook: ‘Anyone know who the freak in the cat mask and morph suit is at the coastal park near the harvester?
‘Was walking my dog tonight and heard a man making cat noises, shone a torch he was waving his arms at me before crawling up the hill! Never been so scared!’
A photo that she took and posted shows him walking up a hill, illuminated by her torchlight.
Another local told the BBC that she also noticed the strange figure when she was walking her dog.
When she shone her torchlight on the figure she saw the man crawling up the hill on all fours.
She said: ‘I didn’t feel scared really, he was just waving his arms and making panther noises. I felt more confused than scared.’
Others have seen the funny side, with one posting on Facebook: ‘I went through a stage of doing this year’s ago but I’ve now got through it, don’t ask MEOW!’.
Another joked: ‘Hi, this is my cat. He isn’t chipped and is quite skittish, we’ve been missing him for a few days so please don’t approach again. We’re hoping he comes back home soon, my wife’s boyfriend is worried sick’.
Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell said she hoped anyone with concerns would report them to the police.
Metro has contacted Merseyside Police for comment.
The person bears a striking similarity to the ‘Somerset gimp’ who terrified locals in Bleadon, near Weston-super-Mare, in May 2023.
It was revealed that Joshua Hunt, 32, was the man behind the gimp mask and was banned for five years from wearing masks, dressing in all-in-one black outfits at night and ‘crawling, wriggling or writhing on the ground’.
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