A company director from Crawley is convinced he heard a "big cat" noise close to where a puma-like creature was sighted near a village school.
Richard Moynihan heard what sounded like the growl made by a member of the big cat family while walking through woods on the outskirts of Balcombe.
A few days earlier a classroom assistant and a dozen reception class children at Balcombe School sa
w what looked like a big cat-like creature close to woods near the school's perimeter fence.
In an exclusive interview with the Mid Sussex Times classroom assistant Rosemary Robertson described it as "like a ginger tom but about three times the size". It was making an ear-piercing puma-like sound, she said.
Big cats-like creatures such as puma, panthers and leopards are known to exist in Sussex but they are elusive and sightings are rarely corroborated by more than one person.
Richard, a partner at freight forwarding company EMS Cargo in Crawley, had spent the day on a 17-mile walk from his home in Brook Hill Road, Copthorne, to Balcombe and back.
He had lunch at the tearooms in Bramble Hill, Balcombe, before walking along the B2036 out of the village towards Crawley.
He turned onto a track, known locally as the Red Road, and walked towards Paddockhurst Road.
About halfway along the road, beside a coppice, he heard an unmistakable growling noise.
Richard said: "It wasn't that deep or loud but it wasn't like any other animal I have heard other than on the TV on Big Cat Diary.
"It must have been fairly close and it carried on for a bit - it certainly made me walk faster and the more I think about it the more convinced I am that that is what it was."
Only after hearing the noise did he stop at the Crown pub in Turners Hill for a drink and read about the Balcombe School sighting in a national newspaper.
He said: "I couldn't believe it when I saw the story about the school in Balcombe. I said to the landlord 'I've just heard the same creature!'"
