'Gollum-like' monster emerges from lake

A slimy, glob-like creature dubbed Gollum has terrified children after it slithered out of a lake and clambered over the rocks towards them.

The young teenagers were playing by the waterfront in a Panama lake near Cerro Azul when the bald beast emerged from a cave behind a waterfall. They started screaming as it shuffled out "as if to attack them".

Locals told Panama news the monster was like "Gollum from Lord of the Rings".

One said: "I have only seen that creature once before - and it was in the Tolkien film.

"But in a "desperate bid to defend themselves" four children grabbed rocks from the beach and hurled them at the beast.

Having killed it they picked up the body and tossed it back into the lake, before fleeing.

Disbelieving parents went to investigate and were amazed to see the body had washed up on the shore. It has since been picked apart by buzzards.

Melquiades Ramos, an expert at the National Environmental Authority said, he will investigate the animal.

Zoologist Jacobo Arauz said it was likely the creature was likely to be a mutation and suggested it could be a form of sloth.