CONCLUSIVE proof that the "Beast of Sedgemoor" once roamed around Bridgwater may finally have been un-earthed by the Mercury.

Stawell couple Les and Juliet Helps this week recounted the moment when they saw the black panther-like creature as it stalked its prey near their home on the Polden Hills.

And the chance recording of the incident on a hand-held camera by their son, Chris, 15 years ago could be the only time the mysterious beast has been caught on film.

Les said: "My son was filming a vixen with her cubs in the field behind our house and we saw this black thing come out of the trees.

"We could hear the vixen screaming at this animal to try and get it away from her cubs - it was a terrible noise.

"We could see it was a cat of some sort and about the size of a Labrador with a big tail. It began circling around the vixen with its lashing tail and looked ready to attack."

The whole sequence was saved on Betamax video before being transferred onto VHS. The quality of picture has suffered because of the transfer but the image of the big cat can still be made out.

In the two-minute sequence, seen by the Mercury, a large black creature with a long tail can be seen in a stand-off with the vixen.

Unfortunately, a still image of the tape was not available at the time of going to press.

The quest for concrete evidence of the Beast's existence began two weeks ago when a team of researchers from Channel Five's Big Cat Search appealed for Mercury readers to contact them if they had seen the animal prowling around the area.

Mark James said the response from Bridgwater had been "brilliant" and gave the team some important leads in the making of the programme. He said: "We went to Cornwall to film for three days last week and when we returned we had ten messages on our hotline, all of which were sightings in the Bridgwater area. The response was brilliant, thank you very much to everyone who contacted us."

Earlier this month, Mervyn Slocombe revealed that he saw a wild cat at Enmore Park Golf Club in 1992 and a number of other callers have contacted the Mercury to share their experiences.

Anyone who sees what they think is a big cat can ring a designated hotline on 0870-3339083 or visit the website at www.five.tv/big catsearch.

Any who believes they have seen the animal should also tell the Mercury newsroom by emailing our reporters at newsdesk@bridgwater mercury.co.uk