Leopard mauls six people in Indian school

Wildlife officials in Indian city of Bengaluru captured a leopard from a school after it mauled six people, locals and officials said on Monday.

The wild cat entered the school premises early Sunday morning and remained unnoticed until it attacked an employee in the late afternoon.

The school was closed for the weekly holiday.

Authorities rushed a team of wildlife to capture the leopard following the attacks. The team had to struggle hard for nearly 10 hours and fire tranquiliser darts to control the wild animal.

Footage captured on CCTV installed in the school showed leopard running amok, scaling school wall and attacking people including a forest officer, who was grappling with it.

"The animal was taken to the Bannerghatta National Park," an official of the wildlife department told reporters.

Officials said all the six people injured, including a cameraman of TV news channel, were treated at hospital and said to be in stable condition.

Wildlife officials say leopards stray into residential areas usually in search of food. However, the human presence makes them insecure, following which they resort to attacking people. At times these creatures are attacked by scared villagers in retaliation which also proves fatal for them.

There are strict laws in India against the killing of wild animals.

Last year, a leopard found its head stuck in a metal pot while searching for food at a village in northern state of Rajasthan.

Wildlife expert say mass urbanization, denudation of forests, encroachment of forestland, vanishing of buffer zones in the forests and extraction of medicinal plants are some of the reasons responsible for increasing conflict between humans and animals.

Every year many people get killed or injured in the growing man-animal conflict across India. Endit