The Indian Army claimed to have found 'Yeti footprints' and Twitter is having a field day

In news that we honestly thought we would never ever have the privilege of writing the Indian army have released photos of footprints that they believe belong to the mythical yeti creature.

Yep, you read that correctly. The Yeti...

On Monday, the Additional Directorate General of Public Information for the Indian army tweeted a series of pictures featuring mysterious footprints in the snow at the base camp of mount Makalu, the fifth biggest mountain in the world.

According to the tweet, the footprints measured 35 x 15 inches and were spotted on April 9. They added that the "elusive snowman has only been sighted at Makalu-Barun National Park in the past."

According to the Times of Indiathe photographs have been handed over the experts for further scientific evaluation and only released the pictures after discovering that it matched with earlier theories about the creature, adding:

So, we thought it prudent [to go public] to excite scientific temper and rekindle the interest.

Given that the Yeti is widely considered to be a myth or a creature that is mistaken for a subspecies of a bear, Twitter users were quick to dismiss the photos as nonsense.

Others managed to find some good humour in the situation with some pointing out that the Yeti only seemed to have one leg.

Maybe there is a simpler explanation?

The footprints are said to have been found in a remote area near the Nepal and China border which is notorious for attracting researches trying to find the so-called 'Abominable Snowman.'

However, this is far from the first time that people have claimed to have found the Yeti and the origins of the creature.

In 2017, scientists at the University of Buffalo claimed that a study had revealed that the Yeti derived from the Himalayan bear. Yet, in 2014 geneticists from Oxford University claimed that two hair samples from that particular region of the Himalayas had a 100 per cent match to a prehistoric polar bear which existed more than 40,000 years ago.

Stories of the beast have stretched back for decades, with explorers dating back to the 1920s attempting to find it. In the 1950s, the Nepalese government even issued a 'hunting licence' in the hope that they could capture the Yeti.

HT BBC News