A monster of the deep that has been terrorising the wildlife of Strode Park in Herne has turned out to be a two-stone snapping turtle.

For at least two years staff at the foundation for people with disabilities could not work out why moorhens, ducks and fish were dying in their pond.

There had been sightings of a shelled creature swimming around the murky waters. “But we just thought it was a terrapin,” said maintenance worker Rikki Carter. “Then we decided to drain the pond and got rid of 100 years of muck.

“After that we managed to get a little terrapin out. Then another staff member said they had seen a big turtle and it had hissed at them.”

The hunt to capture the monster of Strode Park was on.

“It just evaded us every time,” said 24-year-old Mr Carter. “I kept throwing nets at it, but last week it nearly pulled me in.”

Snapping turtles are native to North America and are powerful enough to bite off a finger. While they can grow up to 18in long, at birth they measure barely an inch across.

It is thought that the turtle in Herne was bought as a small pet then dumped as it outgrew its owner.

Finally, on Friday, it was taken captive.

Mr Carter said: “I saw it by a sluice and managed to get it with a bigger net. It was a beast, a dinosaur.

“We called it Jaws at first. But we changed that to Snappy!”

RSPCA officers have found a home for the turtle at an animal sanctuary in Essex.