Hunt is on for terrifying monster lurking in the depths of the Humber River

The hunt is on to track down the "Humber Monster", a terrifying sea creature said to have a head the size of an elephant, six humps and flashing eyes.

Historian Mike Covell, from Humber Monster Watch, is heading the campaign which aims to track down the creature ahead of Hull being crowned UK City of Culture in 2017.

Covell has formed a patrol to monitor the shores of Hull's Humber river in the hope the infamous monster can be tracked down.

Speaking to The Express, he said: "Throughout the 1920s, trawlermen from Hull had reported strange sightings of a creature in the Humber and the North Sea.

"In 1923, a Hornsea school teacher was swimming off the coast when he was attacked by an unknown sea creature."

Throughout the 1920s, the Humber Monster terrorised the city's residents, with sightings of the beast filling the pages of the local press. It was said the beast, with its gargantuan head and oddly shaped body, could travel faster than 100mph.

According to the Hull Daily Mail, in 1934, Thomas Atkinson suffered a frightening encounter with the monster. He had been on the shores of the river with his wife and children when he spotted a black creature swimming in the water. It had turned towards the family and reportedly stared at them with "eyes the size of portholes" until they fled in horror.

However, the sightings of the monster were not the only inkling that something strange was brewing in the Humber. In 1925, a supposedly giant octopus was found by fishermen on Withernsea beach, near Hull. It was reportedly 6ft long with eight tentacles full of suckers.

New Nessie photo

Monster hunters have long tried to prove the existence of Nessie, the mythical sea creature said to inhabit the waters of Scotland's Loch Ness.

A new photograph emerged earlier this week sparking speculation that the Loch Ness Monster may have a mate.

Ian Campbell, 56, was on a bike ride when he spotted two big creatures swimming across the Loch together.

The council regulatory officer, who says he is not a man "given to flights of fancy", is convinced that the two creatures he saw and photographed were both about 30ft in length.