A third of Germany is covered with dense forests, accounting for the number of similar hermit-spotting stories that have cropped up in recent years (Picture: Bild)
Two images captured by hikers have fuelled speculation that folkloric rumours of a ‘wolf man’ living in the German mountains may have some truth to them.
The photos, reportedly taken by Gina Weiss and her friend Toby, appear to show a Stig-of-the-Dumpesque figure brandishing a spear-like instrument in the forest at Harz national park, north central Germany.
The man can be seen sitting on a rock, scratching at the stone with another Stone Age-looking utensil in his other hand.
Ms Weiss claims she and Toby took the images using their mobile phones while out walking near a network of sandstone caves in the park earlier on Tuesday.
She told local tabloid Bild: ‘We saw the ‘wolf man’ when we reached the sandstone caves.
‘He was standing on top of one of the caves, holding a long wooden stick like a spear in his arm.’
She added: ‘He didn’t take his eyes off us and didn’t say a word. He looked dirty and behaved like a stone age man from a history book.’
The encounter with the strange figure reportedly lasted for about ten minutes before Ms Weiss and Toby moved on.
Bild reports that the man, or similar figures, have been occasionally spotted in the area going back to at least 2015.
Local authorities are also thought to have sometimes found evidence of camp fires being set in the woods, as well as rudimentary dwelling spaces.
Such stories are not uncommon in Germany, where large forests frequently yield unconfirmed stories of hermits living off the land.
One such tale turned out to be true, when in 2007 an American man was found living in a hut in the Eifel, a mountain range in West Germany, where he also turned out to be cultivating small amounts of marijuana.
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It’s not the only time a bizarre sighting has sparked widespread public interest in Germany so far this summer.
News of the ‘wolf man’ sighting in Harz follows after Berlin authorities spent several days hunting what was initially suspected to be a lioness running loose, sparking panic within the city.
The search was eventually called off after police announced the elusive big cat was, in fact, a wild boar.
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The Stone Age-looking figure was photographed walking in the forest at Harz National Park on Tuesday.