Chinas Loch Ness monster has been sighted

Chinas state run television has claimed that it has received a video report about the sighting of a Loch Ness monster churning across Lake Kanasi in the remote western province of Xinjiang.

London, July 19 : China's state run television has claimed that it has received a video report about the sighting of a Loch Ness monster churning across Lake Kanasi in the remote western province of Xinjiang.

The sighting, according to The Times, has reignited a debate over the existence of an underwater creature that can compete with Scotland's Loch Ness monster in both in terms of mass and mystery.

The grainy film shows about 15 objects moving at high speed just beneath the surface of the lake and whipping the smooth blue water into a bubbling white frenzy.

Chinese Central Television said that the footage was shot by a passing tourist on July 5, and proclaimed it as the clearest ever seen of the legendary beast.

Local myth among the Chinese Mongolians living in the scenic mountains near the Russian and Mongolian borders has it that the animals have been known to drag sheep, cows and even horses from the shore and into the deep to devour them.

A television commentator described the sighting as the first since June 7, 2005 when two black creatures measuring more than 10 metres in length appeared on the surface swimming at speed from the shore to the centre of the lake.

Environmentalists have been on the monster's trail since 1980. Chinese researchers in the 1980s said the 'monster' was likely to be a huge member of the salmon family - one of eight species of fish living in the lake. The animals that roam Lake Kanasi live in an area about 24 kilometres by two kilometers and with an average depth of 122 metres and as deep as 188 metres at one point.

ANI