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© Paul Keehn'Buckinghamshire panther', 2009
A police officer has revealed he saw a big cat while he was on board a police helicopter assisting in the search for a missing woman.

Inspector Nick Whyte said he could not believe what he was seeing when he picked up a large heat source on the aircraft's infrared camera equipment.

The helicopter was flying over Arthur's Seat, a hill in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh at the time.

Insp Whyte told the Edinburgh Evening News the animal was three times the size of a female police officer who was on the ground.

The police helicopter had been sent up to help try and find a vulnerable mum after the discovery of a two-day-old baby found abandoned near St Leonards Police Station in the city.

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Speaking to the newspaper for the first time about the incident in the early hours of one morning in 2012, Insp Whyte said the helicopter was flying above the area where the baby was found when they picked up a "large" heat source.

He said: "As I directed a female police officer towards it, the heat source got up and it turns out it was a big cat - we think a puma or something like that.

"We couldn't believe what we were seeing.

"It wasn't a domestic cat, because on the same part of the screen you could see the female police officer and this thing was, you know, three times the size of her. It was huge.

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Arthur's Seat in central Edinburgh, capital of Scotland
"She couldn't see it and she couldn't hear it.

"I just told her calmly to stop where she was and turn around and walk away, and she did.

"The cat bounded off, never to be seen again. Sadly we don't have the video footage from it.

"Big cats are alive and well in Edinburgh."

Insp Whyte added he believed the mother was later found alive and well.