Five injured in leopard attack in Bihar

Five people, including a 13-year-old girl, were injured in a leopard attack in Bihar's Araria district on Monday, a forest officer said.

The big cat remained on the prowl for several hours in tribal-dominated Fatehpur and Pithaura panchayats of Narpatganj block, before being caught and sent to a zoo.

District Forest Officer Naresh Prasad said that the leopard was caught in a densely populated village in Fatehpur where it was hiding in a house, surrounded by a large number of locals who were armed with bows, arrows and bamboo sticks.

Forest personnel entered the house, trapped the leopard and placed it inside the cage they were carrying.

Villagers Bechan Mishra (55), Agrahan Mandal (45), Rupa Kumari (13), Virendra Kumar Mandal (25) and Ramanand Oraon (26) were attacked and injured by the leopard and they were treated at the local primary health centre.

The leopard, which appears to have escaped from a forest in adjoining Nepal, has been sent to the Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, a zoo in Patna, Prasad added.