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Stomping through a forest while a passer-by just happened to have a camera to hand, this “7ft tall Bigfoot” could easily be dismissed as being a big bloke in a hairy costume.

But the photo, which emerged today, seems to have suddenly taken on a new significance because scientists have dropped a bombshell – they claim to have found DNA evidence to prove the creatures exist.

The researchers in the US have reported their findings after spending five years and £300,000 investigating sightings of Bigfoot, or sasquatch as it is known in America.

Dr Melba Ketchum, a qualified vet who led the team, stressed it was a “serious study”.

Then added: “Not only does the DNA prove their existence, I’ve actually seen them. They’re a type of human people, a human hybrid.”

Perhaps explaining the many blurry Bigfoot images over the years, she said: “They can elude us. If you get it at all, it’s going to be very fleeting.”

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The findings, revealed in Texas by the Sasquatch Genome Project, must make interesting reading for the man who snapped the creature in the forest.

John Stoneman, 57, had been driving with his girlfriend a fortnight ago when they spotted the mysterious burly shape moving in the trees 200 yards away.

He said: “I’m a sceptic but this wasn’t a bear. It’s wider at the shoulders and tapers down – a bear is bigger in the middle and stands differently. This was standing like a man, like a Bigfoot. It was 7ft tall.”

John, a forester, said he took the photos in Kinzua State Park, Pennsylvania, as they slowed their car. Some pictures even appear to show a second creature.

During the Sasquatch Genome Project’s announcement, the scientists published Bigfoot footage from a similar team, the Erickson Project, which said it had “definitive video and DNA evidence from the elusive sasquatch”.

Dr Ketchum said they had at least one tissue sample from a Bigfoot.

She added that parts of the DNA from various blood and hair samples were unlike anything seen before in any known species.

Last year a hoaxer trying to start a Bigfoot scare was run over and killed as he stood in the road attempting to terrify drivers.

How the legend evolved

1924: Prospector Albert Ostman is “kidnapped” by yetis in British Columbia.

1924: Miner Fred Beck attacked by rock-throwing “apemen” in Washington.

1941: Jeannie Chapman flees a 7ft 6in sasquatch in British Columbia.

1958: Jerry Crew produces casts of footprints found in California. The cast is, in fact, of prints made by 16in wooden feet.

1967: Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin produce footage of a yeti, which is later revealed to be man in an ape suit.