'Cats keep turning up dead on our street - now we're demanding an inquiry'

The residents of Sherwood Avenue in Nottingham have seen an unprecedented amount of cat deaths. Eight of their four-legged furry friends went missing and were later found dead

A wave of mysterious cat deaths has left a quiet street in terror. Locals are demanding an inquiry into eight deaths in Mansfield, Notts. The riddle has chilled neighbours in Sherwood Avenue.

They said cats started going missing in September and up to eight had been found dead since. Planning permission has been granted for 156 new homes on neighbouring land and ecologists are carrying out work there. Mansfield District Council said it was looking into the issue.

Theresa Williams said: “I was horrified. My husband was walking the dog and found a cat dead after a neighbour saw it behind their house. “I’d noticed there’s been a few cats missing on the local [online] pages so we brought the cat back and checked its markings. When I picked it up its lower leg came off, it was awful.

“Another neighbour was looking for her cat after it went missing a few weeks before. She found it, but it was dead.” Joe Manning’s cat Jasper is among the cats that have died.

“All we know is that our cat isn’t here any more, it’s rubbish,” he said. "There’s been that many deaths, and that many people reporting missing cats, that I’ve got a neighbour keeping their cat in.”