They are laughing no more. It may be a bunny story, but the chilling tale of the Beast of Felton is a haunted stranger to the world of Watership Down.

At the Northumberland Arms, hunched villagers whisper of the giant, ravenous rabbit prowling the community at night. No one, it seems, can catch it, and no home-grown vegetable is safe.

The creature leaves behind huge footprints, has diabolically shaped ears and is proving the biggest threat to cabbages in the history of the local allotment. So strong that it is able to pull leeks and turnips fully out of the soil, the black-and-brown rabbit has already demolished a market stall’s worth of Japanese onions, parsnips and spring carrots.

The allotment-holders of Felton, which is north of Morpeth, have taken stern measures, with no success, to capture it. A dozen have clubbed together to hire two guards armed with air rifles, one of whom is a licensed gamekeeper. Both have orders to shoot to kill if they catch sight of the beast.

The parish council has given the hunters its support. Jeff Smith, 63, who has tended an allotment in Felton for 25 years, first saw the rabbit in February. He said: “This is no ordinary rabbit. We are dealing with a monster. It’s absolutely massive.

“The first time I saw it, I wasn’t sure what it was. Its prints are huge, about the size of a deer. It’s a brute of a thing. We have two lads here with guns who are trying to shoot it, but it’s too clever. They never see it.”

Since Mr Smith first saw the huge rabbit, three other allotment-holders have also reported sightings of the beast. A fifth sighting came when a local woman saw it “thundering” across her lawn through early morning rain.

As he crept through the allotment yesterday, Brian Cadman, a 17-year-old underkeeper, was giving every impression of a man on a mission. He has patrolled the allotment for the past three nights and insisted that he was not scared by the prospect of coming face to face with his prey.

“Only a few people have seen it so far but I’ve seen the evidence and I think it’s going to be a big ’un,” he said. “I’ve been out here at night with another underkeeper. We have not had much luck yet but you can see what it’s been eating. It’s been taking huge bites out of cabbages, carrots and turnips.

“I’ve seen its footprints and they look like the size of a dog’s. The sooner we can find it, the better.”

The rabbit was top of the agenda when Mr Smith addressed a sombre gathering of Felton Parish Council on Monday. He told the meeting: “When we get it killed — when we shoot it — we are going to hang it up on a tree so folk can see it.”

Councillors nodded their approval.

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