A DOG-walker has claimed he was faced with a huge black cat that growled and bared its teeth while strolling through a Hertfordshire park.

Tom Pitt, 38, says he saw the beast in the grounds of Hatfield House on Sunday.

It comes after cops in Scotland were put on panther alert when a big cat was spotted in Ayrshire.

He claimed it was "bigger than a domestic cat" - and managed to snap a photograph.

Tom told EssexLive: "I think it was my dog who noticed first. He kind of looked in that direction and so I looked, and it was a big black cat.

"It looked like a domestic cat but much bigger.

"We made eye contact with it and began to walk towards it. It looked like it growled and bared its teeth.

"It ran into the woods after that. I think we startled it, it was all so quick.

"I have been walking over there for years and I've never seen anything like it before. You don't expect to see that kind of thing."

"It was the morning and I was barely awake. You see the deer and hedgehogs but not a big cat."

RSPCA confirmed no sightings matching the beast's description have been reported in the park.