Yorkshire Lion
Posted by: Loren Coleman on November 7th, 2011
The Guardian of UK reported, in part, on Sunday November 6, 2011:
Passengers were forced to remain on board a train in Shepley, Yorkshire after a woman reported a lion sighting to police. Photograph: Graeme Robertson
Passengers were forced to remain on board a train for two hours at Shepley station in Yorkshire on Sunday after police received a report of a lion on the loose in the vicinity.
West Yorkshire police received a call at 3.30pm from a woman saying she had spotted a lion as she was driving through Shepley, near Huddersfield. Officers say they believe the woman was a genuine caller but, after a two hour search involving a police helicopter and 12 officers, the inquiry was brought to a close with no lions found, and no further sightings.
Inspector Carlton Young, of West Yorkshire police, said: “We’ve had unconfirmed reports of a lion or a lion cub in the area. We’ve had officers looking around. We’ve had nothing confirmed and we’ve not located anyone who is claiming to have lost an animal.”
National Rail Enquiries wrote on its Twitter feed on Sunday: “Passengers are currently unable to alight from trains at Shepley due to reports by police of a lion in the area.” It later issued an update that normal service had been resumed.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Wow, first I’ve ever heard of a big cat sighting affecting a public service like a train.