Olympic competitors are quaking in their spiked running shoes after tales emerged of a killer creature lurking in swampy waters close to the 2012 site in London.
According to reporter Louis Emanuel at the Hackney Citizen, the as-yet unidentified, monster was spotted dragging a 16lb Canada goose under the water "so fast it disappeared without a sound".
The breathless report claims that the "mysterious killer beast" is lying in wait for sprinters and high jumpers somewhere in the River Lea near to the Olympic park in Stratford.
The monster was "obviously pretty big", said the witness to the attack, a local man named by the Citizen as Mike Wells.
It also quotes a spokesperson for British Waterways who said it may be a giant pike or a mink, and a local zoology graduate who thinks the devilish demon of the deep might be an escaped pet python.
The reports of the monster have likely set monster hunters and crypto-zoologists reaching for their spectrometers, infra-red cameras and harpoons. But they are nothing new for this area of London.
In 2005 similar reports emerged in the popular press after another swan was said to have been pulled under the water by a silent killer.
Large holes were reportedly found in banks near to the water, leading to suspicions the animal might even be an alligator or a giant turtle.
Legends have long been told of alligators or other monsters living in London's waterways, sewers and underground rivers. None have ever been found.