Where is Ollie the Otter, and has his visit to Ipswich's Holywells Park met a grim end?

The otter which has been delighting visitors to the park for the last month has reported to have been killed by a car on Cliff Lane beside the park earlier this week.

But despite a major search along the road by park rangers who have looked into the hedges where his body was reported to have been left, there has been no sight of him.

And another mystery surrounding the disappearance is that many people are convinced there may have been two otters in the park, an adult and a pup, and neither have been seen for several days.

A woman called the Friends of Holywells Park to say she had seen an otter run over by a car and that she had put the body into a hedge near the school.

However a detailed search by park rangers in the area found no evidence - but the stories of the accident have flown around the area.

A spokeswoman for the borough said: "We have heard the reports about the accident and have been looking to find out what we can but nothing has turned up so we can't say for certain whether there was any accident like that."

This is the time of the year when otters can travel quite long distances to try to find a mate - and they are very good at staying hidden from sight.

So it could be that Ollie has just upped sticks from Holywells Park and has gone off looking for love.

Ipswich Star:

The owner of Bishops Cafe at the park, Jon Shapcott, organised a photographic competition for people who had taken pictures of Ollie.

He said: "When I heard about the accident it was very sad - the otter had been very popular and had brought a lot of people in so I'd be sorry if anything had happened. Let's hope these reports are wrong and that he is okay."

Mr Shapcott intends to announce the winners of the competition in about 10 days.

"If we know by then that the worst has happened it will be a memorial competition," he added.