A leopard on the loose in a school in India has mauled six people who attempted to capture the wild animal.
The male leopard stalked the halls and grounds of VIBGYOR High, an international school in the southern city of Bangalore, for nearly 10 hours on Sunday, according to local news reports.
The eight-year-old male was first spotted inside the school building on chilling footage captured on CCTV.
Dramatic vision shot by local news channels then shows the leopard falling out of the building from an upper level into netting, knocking over a ladder and landing in the school's courtyard.
Local forest officials finally shot the frenzied feline with a tranquiliser dart, but before the tranquiliser kicked in, the leopard went on the attack.
It dashed around the school's swimming pool, leaping on several men who tried in vain to dart out of the way.
Conservation scientist Sanjay Gubbi and forest department driver Benny Maurius were injured when they tried to corner the animal, according to local media reports.
Mr Gubbi tried to escape by scaling a fence, but was dragged down by the leopard, and bitten on the arm.
The drugged leopard eventually stumbled into a changing room and collapsed.
Its captors waited an hour to confirm the beast was asleep before moving in and covering the beast with a net.
"It may have strayed from the open forests near Whitefield, and once strayed, it could not go back," Ravi Ralf, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests for wildlife told The Hindu.
"We tried to lock it in a room, but the windows close to the roof were covered by a flimsy mesh. It managed to push its way outside and leap to another room. Even there, it pushed through the mesh and leapt out … those were anxious moments," Mr Rafi said.
The six people hurt during the incident, including a local TV news cameraman, have been treated for minor injuries.
The subdued animal was transported to a national park.
"It is being kept for treatment and observation at the rescue centre of the Bannerghatta Biological Park," said Santosh Kumar from the Indian Forest Department.
Leopards and other big cats are known to stray into populated areas in the Kundalahalli region and elsewhere in India, the BBC reported.
Animal conservationists have warned that the number of confrontations with these wild animals may increase as human activity encroaches on natural habitats.
In January, a lion had to be rescued from waters off the coast of the Indian port of Jafrabad, after local fishermen alerted rangers from the nearby Gir National Park.
Last year a male leopard spent five hours trapped after its head became stuck in a metal pot in a village in Rajasthan, in northern India.
A recent wildlife census suggests the Indian leopard population is between 12,000 and 14,000.
