CONCERN is growing over a string of mysterious cat deaths on a Leigh estate.

Five cats have been discovered collapsed in similar circumstances over the last few months and another is currently missing.

Each body has been found in an alley on The Poplars estate, which runs alongside Lowton High School. Each time a tin of sardines and a black bin bag has been lying nearby.

Greenacres Close resident Yvette Farrell first became suspicious when she found the body of her cat, George, while walking her children to school earlier this year.

When Mrs Farrell and her family moved to the estate seven months ago she was warned by a neighbour that cats do not seem to last long around the area.

But she thought that her cat, who was 18-years-old and did not go far, would be safe.

She said: "It was strange, there were no marks on her, it was as if she had just collapsed -- that's when I began to wonder if she had been poisoned."

Since then she has kept watch and has found a further three bodies in the same place. She reported each one to the council and police and has also contacted the RSPCA.

The fifth cat to die in this way belonged to Alicia Shaw, who had been posting missing cat flyers through doors around the area when she was told by a man that her five-year-old cat Wilma had been found dead in his garden and had been removed.

Alicia, of Clayhill Grove, said: "I didn't even have a body to have a post mortem, as it had already been taken away. I am now keeping my other cat, Gucci, indoors for safety."

Graham Hurst of Wigan Council's cleansing department, who have been called to remove the animals, said: "It is unusual, they don't seem to have been run over, they have just been found collapsed. There have been three in a month in the same area -- we know exactly where they're going to be.

"The rumours are that someone has been poisoning them. It could be someone using weed killer on their garden, but it does seem strange."

A spokesman from the RSPCA said: "Unfortunately some people do poison cats to keep them out of their gardens. We are investigating this situation, but it is difficult to prove anyone is doing it deliberately."