AS stories go, it was one of the more unusual I have ever received.

“I’ve just seen a crocodile in the Swale,” said the caller.

My reaction might have been deemed discourteous but nevertheless natural.

I burst out laughing.

But Tom Ransom was adamant he had just witnessed something decidedly reptilian while on a day out in North Yorkshire.

Coming a week after two pythons were found slithering down a road in neighbouring East Cleveland, perhaps my scepticism was misplaced.

“We were sat down by the river eating a pizza and stuff,” Tom said from the scene near Richmond. “And this thing swam, using its legs to push itself, straight across from the river bank and then just turned and went up stream. Not downstream with the water, but upstream.”

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Tom, 20 and from Leyburn, was with his friends including Morgan Hawtin, 18, who also witnessed the incident on Sunday afternoon.

“We all went completely nuts. Morgan grabbed his phone and took a picture of it – it’s not even blurry or anything,” he said.

Tom said there had been talk locally of a scaly creature inhabiting the otherwise sleepy waters, but unsurprisingly he had discounted them as hearsay.

“We heard something a few months ago and just thought it was a load of rubbish,” said Tom, who is waiting to start university.

“Then we have just seen something that sounds exactly like it.”

Tom said he wasn’t easily taken in by things.

“Usually I am quite sceptical,” he said. “I wouldn’t believe anything like this to be honest.

“But I am absolutely convinced of what I saw and so is everyone here.”

So if Tom is proved right and there is a croc lurking beneath the surface of the Swale what should people do?

“Probably keep out of it,” he said. “On a hot day people are paddling and all sorts. I have never seen anything like it outside of a zoo.”

  • Have you seen anything similar in the Swale? Email Newsdesk@nne.co.uk