Andreas Solvik said he was in “no doubt about it. We saw what we saw,” he told broadcaster NRK, Friday.

There has been much talk over the years about whether there is a monster in the lake. At 514 metres (approximately 1,686 feet), Hornindalsvatnet is the deepest in Europe.

The men claimed they spotted the creature at 21:30 after seeing ripples in the water and do not believe a boat passing at the time caused the ripples.

They took their boat to that area of the lake after allegedly seeing the serpent in the water the men took, but the creature was gone by the time they arrived, according to Mr Solvik.

“However, there was nothing more to see when we got there, just ripples on the lake. There was nothing in the water then”.

The men contacted the local newspaper, Fjordingen, and showed them the pictures they had taken of the creature.

Its editor, Bengt Flaten, did not doubt the story the men gave. He said that the pictures clearly show something in the water and vouched for the man as he knows them.

Describing the pictures, Mr Flaten declared, “We can see two arches, then the tail section at the back, and one can see what is probably the head at the other end.”

This is not the only story surrounding mysterious creatures in lakes. The most famous is the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland.

Sightings of the Loch Ness Monster have been reported in the press for almost 80 years.

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