A Russian artist today claimed he had a recent close encounter with a friendly Yeti, but did not have a camera with him to record the historic meeting.

Instead, Andrey Lyubchenko invited the eight-foot tall beast to stand while he drew a sketch on a piece of tree bark using a pencil.

To prove that he was telling the truth, Lyubchenko said he asked the Yeti, who claimed his name was Ta Ban, to sign the sketch after the meting in the Siberian wilderness.

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Andrey Lyubchenko claimed he met a Yeti while out walking in Siberia which he drew on a piece of bark

Lyubchencko, pictured, claimed the eight-foot tall beast was friendly and called himself Ta-Ban

Lyubchencko claimed he did not have a camera, and instead took time to draw the friendly Yeti on some bark

'It happened so unexpectedly and fast that I had no time to get scared,' he said.

'There was a clear feeling that this was a thinking creature, I felt he was trying to 'talk' to me.

'The Yeti was about two and a half metres tall (8ft 2 inches), with thick dark brown hair like a bear's - but a lot softer.

'He was holding a wooden stick, with bits of hair wrapped around it.

'But the main thing was his eyes, they were just like light-coloured human eyes.'

The alleged sighting was soon after dawn on July 27 in a remote spot in mountainous Kemerovo region, famed for claims that it has a Yeti population.

'I went out onto a small open patch, and there I felt the Yeti's presence,' he was quoted as saying by The Siberian Times.

'I turned back and saw him standing up, deeper in the woods, not going away and trying to communicate.

'The creature's body shape was male, and his feet were 18 inches long.

'His body was very toned, with lots of visible muscles.

'His hands and feet were proportionate to his body, the same way as with humans.

'His face was expressive, too, just like his eyes. '

After returning from the wilderness, Lyubchenko sketched a more detailed image of the friendly Yeti

Lyubchenko said that he does not take drink or drugs and is both physically and mentally healthy

Lyubchenko, respected for his work in Kemerovo, claimed he communicated with the giant creature.

'I can't describe or understand how we spoke, because - well because it sounds unbelievable,' he said.

'It felt like we heard each other's thoughts, as if it was telepathy.

'There was only one word that the Yeti actually said when I asked his name.

'His voice was low and chesty, and the name sounded as if somebody hit a tambourine twice - "Ta-ban"'.''

In the Shor language of Siberia this could mean 'the one who wasn't discovered', claimed the artist.

He didn't have a phone with a camera, so he used a pencil to draw the beast on birch bark

'I made a drawing of the Yeti and showed him.

'The Yeti studied it really carefully for a while, and then drew a symbol next to my drawing.'

He did not know what the scribble meant but hoped it was a symbol of friendship.

He knew people would call him 'insane'.

'All I can say about myself is that I am as normal as one can find, I am physically and mentally healthy, I don't drink or take drugs,' he said.

The artist is seen as a 'reputable' person and is well-known locally, said 'Kuzbass 85' newspaper which first revealed the account.

Russia's best known Yeti hunter Igor Burtsev - head of the Russian International Centre of Hominology - has previously claimed as many as 30 Yetis roam Kemerovo region.

'We are on the brink of finding the Yeti at long last,' he said in 2011.