Armed police swoop on ‘tiger’ spotted in wood

Reports of a sighting of a big cat in woodland which sparked an armed response and aerial search turned out to be a sculpture of a tiger.

Ten officers responding to a call about a dangerous beast prowling the countryside near Ightham Mote, Sevenoaks, on Saturday instead found the lifesize artwork sitting behind Juliet Simpson’s house.

The 85-year-old sculptor was working when she received a call from a neighbour, telling her armed officers were walking towards her house, in the village of Underriver.

“I had heard the helicopter overhead earlier,” she said. “I walked up to the policemen and said ‘do you want to be introduced to the wild tiger?’ “By then they had already met a couple of people who had told them. It caused us all a great deal of amusement.”

The grandmother created the model two decades ago out of resin and chicken wire.

“When I put it in the wood it sort of owned the area so I didn’t sell it,” she explained. “It has become a local landmark.

“It’s quite dilapidated now, it was vandalised and I had to patch it up.”

The model is about 30 metres from a public footpath and over the years dogs have occasionally been frightened by it, but this is the first time it has been mistaken for a living animal. Ms Simpson does not remember how long it took her to complete, but recalls going to a zoo to observe tigers so the piece was as realistic as possible. The alarm was raised following a sighting by a member of the public shortly after 10.20am. A cyclist reported being stopped by a police officer near Ightham Mote and told to get out of the area as soon as he could and not to go off-road because a big cat was on the loose. A police spokesman said: “Officers, including armed officers, attended as a precaution and, following a search, established there was no animal and no risk to the public.”