Artist to crochet life-size 'Bristol crocodile'

Crocodiles like this one are not usually found swimming in Bristol

A crocodile "spotted under a bridge" by a bus driver in Bristol three years ago is to be immortalised in wool.

The sighting sparked a police hunt and hit the headlines after the driver said he had seen a 6ft (1.8m) reptile under Coronation Bridge.

Community artist Vicky Harrison has been awarded a £3,000 council grant to run workshops to make a "beautiful life-size crocheted Bristol crocodile".

Officers who carried out the search in 2014 "found no trace of the reptile".

After the sighting was reported, Avon and Somerset's then chief constable tweeted "one of our officers was flagged down by a bus driver who claimed to have seen a crocodile". The tweet ended "we can't find it".

Tiny crocheted crocodiles were a feature in a woolly model of Bristol known as Briswool

Vicky Harrison, said the idea to create a woolly version of "this urban myth" had grown from a previous community project - Briswool, where she created a giant woollen model of Bristol, which included crocodiles swimming in a knitted Avon Gorge.

She said: "The life-size freshwater crocodile will be made from an inner wire, card and papier mache and he'll be swathed in greens, browns and metallic gold yarns."

Public workshops for anyone who can "crochet basic stitches" start in May.

Briswool was put on show in May 2016 and attracted more than 40,000 visitors in a week