Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) concluded that no large felines were found from their search of Maafaru International Airport.

On Monday MNDF announced that they were searching for an animal believed to be a large feline, spotted at Maafaru International Airport. A video taken on Monday morning shows a large animal going along the airports airside.

The animal was spotted and videoed by expatriate workers working in the area.

A team was deployed with weapons to locate the animal. However, according to reports, only cats were seen on the island.

Maafaru Council stated that MNDF did not find any large animals, and has concluded that the animal seen in the video was not harmful.

However, people from the island remain unconvinced, with one person who spoke from the island said that it was hard to believe that it was simply a cat.