A TERRIFIED Worcester couple feared a huge 'black panther' would pounce on them through their car window.

Robert Ingram, wife Nicola and a friend had been driving through back lanes near Croome Court at around 1am on Tuesday when they saw the gigantic, muscular beast, rising as high as their car window.

The father-of-three saw the big black animal coming straight for them as it looked directly into their eyes near the National Trust property at High Green, south of Worcester.

Mrs Ingram said the 'Rottweiler-sized' big cat lowered its head as it came towards them as if it was 'stalking the car', looking at her with green eyes which reflected the beam of the headlights.

She said: "I was terrified. It looked like it was going to pounce.

"It was one of the scariest things I have ever experienced. I was worried about it coming around the back of the car and jumping through the window."

Mr Ingram also said he could make out another pair of eyes watching them from the darkness leading him to believe there may be a pair.

Panicking, the driver reversed away at speed but before he could turn around the animal calmly sidled past them without so much as a second glance in their direction.

Mr Ingram, 36, tried to take a photograph as his friend, who wished to be known only as Paul, reversed away at speed, concerned the beast was going to attack the car.

Mr Ingram of Astwood Road, Worcester said the beast at one stage drew level with the front passenger seat where he was sitting and was was the same height as the window.

He said: "It looked like a black panther. It was right beside the car before it disappeared. It was definitely a panther. I thought it was going to attack the car.

"It was walking dead slowly. It was very muscular and looked like it was on steroids.

"My mate Paul reversed at speed because he thought it was going to attack the car.

"I've never been that scared in my life. It was so close I couldn't have opened the door. That's how I know it was a panther."

The incident follows a sighting in Malvern earlier this month when a woman claimed an animal 'bigger than a dog' was 'eating something fluffy'.

She reported the matter to West Mercia Police. Last August Andy Richards of Cheshire who was camping outside the Marlbank Inn at Welland which overlooks the Malverns spotted 'a big feline predator'.

Comments on the Worcester News site also suggest that some readers do believe there is something out there, one mentioning sightings in Callow End in Powick in the late 90s.

Another mentioned sightings around Evesham when a big cat was seen with its head reaching the bottom branches of the trees.

Although one reader did say 'what a load of old tosh'.

A spokesman for Worcestershire Wildlife Trust said: "It is always possible that there is a panther, or other big cat, in our countryside but there hasn’t yet been any firm evidence to prove that they’re there."

Confusingly, black panthers in Asia and Africa are leopards and black panthers in the Americas are black jaguars.

Bob Lawrence, head of wildlife development at West Midland Safari and Leisure Park at Bewdley, said that no-one seemed to be able to produce a clear photograph to authenticate any sightings, adding 'this is the trouble'.

Mr Lawrence said: "It's extremely unlikely it is a leopard or a jaguar which is from the jungles of South America.

"A leopard would be more likely to survive than a jaguar."

He said leopards could be black as well as their more familiar colours.

He added: "There has been a circus in Bromsgrove but it's a long shot that an animal has escaped from the circus.

"They would never let an animal go and do nothing about it. It is extremely unlikely to be a big cat."

Mr Lawrence said big cats like that had never been kept at the safari park so, if it was such an animal, it could not have escaped from there.