The Sydenham Black Panther: Anthony Holder's Garden Attack

Sydenham sits in south-east London, a district of gardens, copses and parks. Yet according to the Daily Mail, Scotland Yard had already confirmed a sighting of a large black cat there in October 2002.

The night of 21 March 2005. A house in Sydenham Park, its rear garden backing onto a copse. Around 2 a.m., Anthony-John Holder, known as Tony, heard the family tabby, Kitty Cat, crying outside. Holder was an ex-sergeant in the Gloucestershire Regiment. Thirteen stone. A father of three.

In the garden, something had the cat pinned down. In the dark, Holder took it for a fox and moved in to chase it off. It was not a fox. "It jumped on me instead, knocking me over."

On LBC radio, Holder described it: "All of a sudden I see this big black thing pouncing at me, knocked me flying." It was growling. "I could see these huge teeth and the whites of its eyes just inches from my face." It was at least 5ft long, Holder said, and "heavier than me." Holder threw it off. By some accounts it then sat calmly in the next-door garden, looking back. Ashleigh, Holder's 11-year-old daughter, reportedly watched from her bedroom window.

The ambulance came. So, it seems, did the animal. "It was strolling past the back of the ambulance as if it didn't have a care in the world." Paramedics treated Holder at home for a six-inch scratch down one cheek, scratches on one arm and a wound to one finger.

Police were called at about 02:18 on 22 March. One Metropolitan Police officer who attended "believes they saw a large black cat-like animal approx. the same size as a Labrador dog." Reuters reported that officers believed they saw the animal fleeing into the darkness, but did not get a clear view.

The Metropolitan Police patrolled the area. The public were told not to approach the animal, to call 999 and to keep pets indoors. Expert advice was sought from the RSPCA and London Zoo. Schools were warned. Wardens stood at the entrances of Sydenham Wells Park, warning dog walkers. Armed police and marksmen reportedly patrolled. An ITN London Tonight crew arrived. Yet no animal was caught. No tracks, hair or droppings were reported, and no photograph of the animal surfaced.

Early reports blamed a panther escaped from a circus. Sydenham Town dismissed it. Zippo's Circus, then in Lewisham, no longer used big cats and had not lost one. Danny Bamping of the Big Cats Society put it plainly: "It was either the world's biggest domestic cat, or a black panther." Bamping suggested an escaped or released pet, and put the number of big cats loose in Britain at 50 to 100. Sceptics note there is no substantive evidence that a non-domestic cat was involved in the claimed attacks in south-east London. Nobody has accused Holder of a hoax.

The legend grew into the Beast of Sydenham. In 2009 a mauled domestic cat was found in Sydenham Park, and a local woman's photo of "the beast" apparently showed a domestic cat. That December, in Dulwich Wood, jogger Roger Fleming said a "brown cheetah"-like animal 5 to 6 ft long chased him. Neil Arnold said the beast was believed to be a black leopard descended from released pets. His book Mystery Animals of the British Isles: London lists the "Sydenham leopard".