A dog owner claims to have seen a large cat resembling a panther that chased him and attacked one of his pets.

Police and RSPCA officials went to James Stephenson’s home in Cornwall after he said a large animal left his Labrador with bleeding claw marks on its shoulder.

Officers found a paw print, said to be almost 5in wide, in the garden, and took a cast of it to send for analysis.

Mr Stephenson, an engineer, said that after his dog was attacked, he then had a sighting of the black animal.

“For the past few nights we’ve noticed large footprints down the end of the garden. The animals don’t want to go out. I went out to the garden with the dogs. I have a big torch and we have had to resort to putting big floodlights up to scare it off.

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“I saw two large green eyes reflecting in the torch light at the bottom of the garden. You’re told to make yourself appear big and aggressive and scare it off. I shouted to it and was waving my arms around and it actually started to run towards me. That’s very unusual for a big cat so it’s obviously adapting to its environment.

“They say you should never turn away or turn your back on a large cat and should never approach it. I was luckily close enough to the door to get back inside when it was coming at me and then didn’t see it again. The dogs were still being strange.”

Several cats are reported to have disappeared in the village of Harrowbarrow, near Callington, in just over a week.

A local farmer has apparently discovered an animal “den” on his land.

A spokesperson for the RSPCA said: “The RSPCA has been contacted about a suspected big cat sighting in Harrowbarrow, Cornwall, last week. Our officer attended after reports that a Labrador had been scratched by a large, black cat. Thankfully, the dog is fine although he has scratch marks, and the owner is taking precautions to keep an eye on the dog in case of further sightings.

“We will continue to monitor the situation.”

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Nobody from Devon and Cornwall Police was available to comment.