THIS is the chilling moment a “headless horseman” appears to gallop through a street in the dead of night – and is caught on spooky CCTV footage.
Millions of people have watched the eerie clip online, which begins with an ordinary-looking street in Mexico in the early hours of the morning.
The sound of a galloping horse can be heard for a few moments before a ghostly figure appears.
What looks like a rider on horseback then tears along the quiet street in a blink-or-you’ll-miss it moment before vanishing out of sight.
The footage was recorded in the city of Tetecala in south-central Mexico at around 12.51 am last week.
One viewer said: “The horse looks without skin like a horse already decomposed with only bones.”
Residents in the town were baffled by the otherworldly footage, according to local media.
Neighbors in the area reported hearing galloping sounds at the beginning of the video, but the horse and rider were not visible.
The video has gained over 5.5 million views, and viewers were prompt to note that a person in the footage seemed undisturbed by the scene.
The civilian can be seen on a ledge towards the edge of the street, remaining seated in the same position even as the ghostly sighting gallops past.
Kathy commented: “Who’s that just sitting there and didn’t see when the horse passed?”
Alma added: “But if it’s almost 2 am, what’s a man doing sitting there? I don’t understand.”
The haunting video has received more than 455,000 likes and nearly 4,000 comments since it was shared.
Another viewer said: “Zoom in to the last light down the street, there’s no shadow.
“You can’t even see the horse/man until the last light, who can explain that? And the person sitting had no reaction.”
What is the headless horseman figure?
The headless horseman is a classic figure in folklore across several cultures and has taken various forms over the centuries.
Versions of the horseman have appeared in folk stories from Scotland and Ireland to Texas and New England.
Legends surrounding the horseman differ among different cultures, usually starting with a soldier or warlord who died in battle and now persists in haunting the living.
The Green Knight of Arthurian legend is one of the better known examples, who is beheaded by Gawain in a challenge on the condition the same blow is returned a year later.
The headless horseman also famously appears in the classic gothic horror story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Alleged “sightings” of headless horsemen in the real world have been reported all across the globe, and continue to this day.
It comes as a mysterious creature, thought to be the mythical chupacabra, was seen creeping towards a woman filming it, leaving wildlife officials baffled.
Janay Lynn, 30, said the animal gave her “the chills” when she first saw it lurking outside her home in Colorado – and little did she know it would return.
El Chupacabra, meaning “goat-sucker” in Spanish, is a creature from American folklore.
It is said to be a monster that attacks animals, especially goats, and drinks their blood.
Despite a lack of scientific evidence, the legend remains popular in some communities.
But others say that people who spot “chupacabras” are actually seeing animals like dogs or coyotes that have mange – a skin disease caused by mites.
