Edinburgh police disclose bizarre 2012 appearance of 'Big Cat' in Scottish capital

© Paul Keehn
'Buckinghamshire panther', 2009

A police officer has revealed he saw a big cat while he was on board a police helicopter assisting in the search for a missing woman.

Inspector Nick Whyte said he could not believe what he was seeing when he picked up a large heat source on the aircraft's infrared camera equipment.

The helicopter was flying over Arthur's Seat, a hill in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh at the time.

Insp Whyte told the the animal was three times the size of a female police officer who was on the ground.

The police helicopter had been sent up to help try and find a vulnerable mum after the discovery of a two-day-old baby found abandoned near St Leonards Police Station in the city.

Speaking to the newspaper for the first time about the incident in the early hours of one morning in 2012, Insp Whyte said the helicopter was flying above the area where the baby was found when they picked up a "large" heat source.

He said: "it turns out it was a big cat - we think a puma or something like that.

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"It wasn't a domestic cat, because on the same part of the screen you could see the female police officer and this thing was, you know, three times the size of her. It was huge.

Arthur's Seat in central Edinburgh, capital of Scotland

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Insp Whyte added he believed the mother was later found alive and well.

Comment: Holyrood Park is a park in the center of Edinburgh. There was nowhere for this creature to go without being seen by others: the park is surrounded by urban areas on all sides.

Its sudden appearance, and disappearance, its 'supernatural' size, and the creature's being so close to someone who couldn't see it are tell-tale signs of this being a paranormal 'Big Cat' event, a common phenomenon in British cryptozoological science.

That local authorities kept the case under wraps for several years (and 'lost' the evidence) suggests they may have been royally spooked by what they saw!