Shrewsbury man snaps 'English Loch Ness Monster'

A Shropshire man has captured an eerie image of a strange shape on the surface of the water at Lake Windermere - sparking fresh claims it could be home to England's answer to the Loch Ness Monster.

Tom Pickles, 24, who works for CapGemini, in Telford, took the image on his phone while kayaking in the Lake District as part of a team-building exercise last Friday.

The snap is said to be the best evidence yet of what some claim is England's answer to Nessie.

Mr Pickles, from Shrewsbury, claimed the creature was the size of three cars as it sped past him and lurked near the surface for 20 seconds.

He said: "It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away. At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10mph.

"Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast.

"Its skin was like a seal's but its shape was completely abnormal. It's not like any animal I've ever seen before."

Mr Pickles's image was believed to be the eighth sighting of a long humpbacked creature - known by local residents as "Bownessie" - in the past last five years.

Mr Pickles was on the last day of a team-building course at Fallbarrow Hall, Bowness, Cumbria. He had kayaked 300 metres out into the lake near Belle Isle when he spotted the beast to the south.

His picture perfectly matches the description of an earlier sighting from the shores of Wray Castle in 2006 by journalism lecturer Steve Burnip.