Leopard injures 5 in Kathmandu

Kathmandu, Oct 24 (UNI) Five persons, including two policemen, were injured when a leopard attacked them at Maligaon here.

''Police and officials from the Central Zoo reached the spot immediately and later spotted the beast when it tried to attack a dog,'' Anuj Pokharel, a local said.

''Central Zoo officials fired tranquiliser at the animal from the premises of the house owned by former Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa but the dart failed to have its effect on the animal and it instead started running frantically,'' local media reported.

''The leopard attacked people and injured Prakash KC, Kanchha KC and two policemen,'' Basanta Rajaure, inspector at the Metropolitan Police Sector, Kamalpkhari, said. The police then fired six rounds at the man-eater.

The beast fell down on the premises of the house owned by Secretary at the Ministry of Education and Sports, Laba Prasad Tripati, but again tried to attack locals who had flocked around to see if the leopard was really dead.

''A local then hacked the dying animal with a khukuri,'' Rajaure added.

The wild big cat was first spotted at around 7 am local time and it took some three and half hours to kill it.

UNI