'Yeti' sightings on the rise in Russia

Mythical creatures that continue to confound

Evidence of legendary creatures like Nessie and the elusive Bigfoot blur the line between fact and fiction.

A group of yetis are on the loose in Sibera, fishermen and a forestry worker have claimed.

There were three reported sightings in recent weeks.

One person who reported spying the beast said “We shouted, ‘Do you need help?’ They rushed away, all in fur, walking on two legs, making their way through the bushes and with two other limbs, straight up the hill.

The person who made the report added: “It could not be bears, as the bear walks on all fours, and they ran on two. Then they were gone.”

On a second sighting on the bank of the Mras-Su River several days later, an unnamed fisherman was quoted as saying: “We saw some tall animals looking like people.”

He added: “Our binoculars were broken and did not let us see them sharply. We waved at the animals but they did not respond, then quickly ran back into the forest, walking on two legs.

“We realized that they were not in dark clothes but covered by dark fur. They did walk like people.”

And in a third sighting a forestry inspector reported seeing a yeti in a national park, a government official said.

Sergei Adlyakov said: “The creature did not look like a bear and quickly disappeared after breaking some branches off the bushes.”

Russia’s leading yeti expert Igor Burtsev, head of the International Center of Hominology, claimed sightings were ’significant’.

At a similar expedition last year, he claimed to have found yeti hair though no DNA findings have been released.

He claims the creature -- also known as bigfoot and Sasquatch -- is the missing link between Neanderthal man and modern human beings.

Burtsev has previously claimed a population of around 30 yetis are living in Russia’s Kemerovo region.

He said: "We have good evidence of the yeti living in our region, and we have heard convincing details from experts elsewhere in Russia and in the U.S. and Canada.

"The description of the habits of the Abominable Snowmen are similar from all over the world."