This "monster" fish has evaded capture, despite authorities draining an entire lake amid warnings it will attack humans.
Huge crowds have been drawn to the hunt for the alligator gar, an invasive torpedo-shaped freshwater fish with razor-sharp teeth.
Millions have also tuned into live streams from influencers following the search of the Yachlan Lake in central China.
The creature, thought to be at least 27.5in long, was first seen in the middle of July by a resident in the nearby landlocked city of Ruzhou.
But gar can grow up to 10ft long and its origins date back more than 100 million years according to fossil records. They were first brought to China from the US as pets but many people release them when they get too large.
And Chinese authorities said the elusive gar now poses a potential risk to ecosystems and humans.
Dangen Gu, an aquatic ecosystems expert at the Pearl River Fisheries Research Institute, said: “When a gar gets released into a river, lake or fish farm here it will start to devour everything, which can be a great threat to local ecosystems.”
Yunchan Lake, a 30-acre space filled with artificial water and aquatic plants, was drained after the government spent two weeks trying to capture the “monster”.
However, even after the drainage, there was no sign of the gar.
Many people on social media compared the gar to a "monster".
“With all this fanfare one would think this was about catching the Loch Ness Monster,” a user joked on Weibo, one of the country’s leading social media platforms.
Opinion on draining the lake is divided online.
"Disgraceful! How dare we drain a lake because of a fish?" wrote one Facebook user.
"Just stop interfering with nature," another comment states.
But one man posted: "It could attack a human."
