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A whale spotted in the Thames could be the first humpback in the river for 10 years, experts said today.

Multiple sightings of the 26ft mammal were initially reported between Rainham and Greenhithe in Kent. Some enthusiasts managed to capture the creature on camera.

People reportedly saw the whale around Dartford Bridge on Sunday, while it was later spotted in Erith. On Monday morning there was a reported sighting near the Ford Dagenham factory.

It comes almost exactly a year after Benny the Beluga was noticed in the Thames by Gravesend.

Benny lived in the Thames for three months and was regularly seen feeding in sheltered areas along the Kent stretch of the river.

The new whale has been seen a number of times, with its presence confirmed by the British Divers Marine Life Rescue.

Julia Cable, national co-ordinator for the group, received a call on Saturday afternoon from a diver who had spotted the whale.

On Sunday she and her crew spent three and a half hours watching its movements.

She said: “We watched it move down the river, the intervals between it surfacing are perfectly normal — it was about five or six minutes which is fine, it’s what they do.

“It seems to be moving along quite happily. It’s definitely a humpback, we’ve been looking at it every time it surfaced through binoculars for three hours. There’s nothing else it can be.”

The Port of London Authority confirmed it was aware of the reports and said ships were being advised appropriately.

The last time a humpback whale was spotted was in 2009, also along the Kent stretch of the Thames.

Usually found in the northern Pacific, there are believed to be about 80,000 humpback whales left in the world.

“We see porpoises and dolphins but not whales. It is very rare,” Ms Cable said. “They are protected species, there isn’t much we can do. It’s just going to have to find its way out.”

David Callahan, 55, a nature writer, added: “It seems to be actively diving and feeding, I don’t know what’s driven it here, it’s a juvenile about eight metres long. It seems to be finding food and doesn’t seem to be disturbed by container ships.

“It’s a big old thing to see in the Thames, perhaps not so much in the Atlantic.

“It’s what you expect to see on a whale-watching cruise in Hawaii, not on a walk down the Thames.”

An eyewitness, Ross Coleman, 34, said: “I saw the spout, and saw the water in the air. I thought ‘that’s a whale’, and then I saw its fin in the water. It was only about 30 metres away.”

In 2006 thousands watched as a dramatic rescue effort was launched to save a 20ft northern bottlenose whale that swam into the Thames in London after straying far from the deep waters of the North Atlantic.

It was nicknamed “the Thames whale” but it died and its skeleton is now on display at the Natural History Museum.