A leopard terrorized the Indian town of Karad Sunday, attacking six people, including one man who it pinned to the ground before being shot by a police officer, according to reports.
The leopard pounced on Hanumant Mane as he walked out of a bar. Officer Vikas Dhas then rushed up and shot the animal at close range, the Mumbai Mirror reported.
The drama began when someone spotted “something that looked like a leopard” on a tin roof of a house.
“I wasn’t sure if I had seen right. I thought it could be a cat or a dog,” one villager told the Mirror.
The leopard then made its way into an empty house. But people began throwing rocks inside, leading the leopard to jump out growling.
Anyone nearby was attacked, with the six suffering injuries to their faces, necks and shoulders, the Mirror reported.
Cops arrived and fired shots into the air to try to scare away the leopard. When that didn’t work, they went after it with sticks and stones. But it then attacked Mane, forcing the cop to step in.
“The leopard was on his chest as I closed in on the scene,” Dhas told the Mirror. “I again wielded my lathi, but it growled at me once and grabbed the victim’s neck. That’s when I whipped out my service revolver and shot the leopard close to its chest. The only thought that crossed my mind as I pointed my gun at it was to save that man. I didn’t want to kill the leopard.”