An 'ape-like' beast nearly 1.65 metres tall has been sighted in the forests of central China, a media report on Monday said.

The grayish 'mythical ape-like animal', suspected by locals to be a 'bigfoot', was reported to have shoulder-length black hair, it said.

'Bigfoot' is more commonly known as the 'Yeti', a mythical beast partly human and part animal, has remained an unsolved mystery of the Himalayas. The name Yeti is derived from 'the rock living animal' ('Yah' means rock and 'thi' means animal in Sherpa), and is popularly known as 'the abominable snowman' in the West.

Chinese wildlife officials have launched an investigation after apparent sightings of the mysterious animal on by six people, including a reporter from the local broadcasting station, in Shennongjia nature reserve in Hubei province on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Shang Zhengmin, the reporter, and five others were on the way back to Songbai town from Muyu town when they sighted the creature.

When their vehicle took a left turn along the mountain road, four of them saw an ape-like animal moving rapidly on the road. But as the vehicle finished the turn, the animal had disappeared.

The passengers found several 30 cmentimetre-long footprints and newly broken branches in the jungle near the area where the animal was reportedly seen. They claim to have discovered a three-meter-long patch of foul smelling urine-like liquid.

Hundreds of local people have reported 'bigfoot' sightings over the past decades in the Shennongjia area.

China has organised several high-profile searches for the unidentified animal through the 1980s and 1990s, but no hard evidence has been found.