A DOG walker told last night how she came face-to-face with a hairy apeman on the Sussex Downs.
Caroline Toms, 34, took this grainy photo of a huge Bigfoot she claims ran past her in the woods.
She was confronted by the terrifying beast — covered head-to-toe in thick black fur and crouching upright like a man — as she walked her border collie Ash.
The building society worker said: “It all happened so fast. Ash started acting a little bit bemused and barking.
“Then she shot off into the undergrowth and I saw this big black thing flash out in front of me.
“I only had my camera out because I was taking pictures of Ash playing.
“She came running back quick as a flash.
“I don’t know what it was, but when I had a closer look at the pictures, it certainly does look like Bigfoot to me.”
The close encounter of the furred kind happened at Angmering Park Estate in Arundel, West Sussex.
Caroline, of nearby Littlehampton, said the beast resembles the legendary Bigfoot apeman of North America, also known as the Sasquatch.
She said: “I think it could be Bigfoot, but it happened so fast I cannot be absolutely certain.
“It was just luck I had the camera out.
“It was so big and massive, I don’t know if it could be anything else.
“That’s what it looked like — I don’t know for sure, but I’ve seen other pictures of supposed Bigfoot, and what I saw looks like the other ones.”
The 6,750 acre Angmering Park Estate is a private nature reserve set in the heart of the South Downs National Park.
It is also a hotspot for big cat sightings.
The Sussex Big Cat Watch group claims there have been “countless sightings” of a puma or leopard there over the years.
In September 2009 a walker claimed to have seen a big black cat the size of a small Labrador walk in front of him on the edge of a dense forest.
There have been scores of Bigfoot sightings in the USA including a famous piece of film shot in a valley in California in 1967.
Last month we told how a Brit hunter claimed a yeti stole one of his cheesy wotsits on a trip to the US.