Leopard attacks couple on motorcycle, snatches infant in Gujarat

A couple on a bike with their son was attacked by a leopard around dusk on Saturday. The big cat snatched the infant who was later released after villagers managed to scare the animal away.

A woman was injured and her four-month-old son snatched, for a brief while, by a leopard which attacked them in Gujarat’s tribal-dominated Chhotaudepur district, about 100 kilometres from Vadodara.

Two leopard cubs at a rescue centre of Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai. (HT File Photo/Representative image)

“Vikram Rathwa, wife Sapna and their four-month-old son were travelling on a motorcycle when the leopard attacked them Saturday near Raipur village in Pavi Jetpur tehsil in Chhotaudepur,” said an official.

“Around dusk Saturday, the leopard, which emerged from a nearby field, attacked us, injured Sapna on her knees and snatched our infant son Ayush,” Rathwa told PTI.

He claimed that his cries for help alerted villagers who assembled at the spot and managed to scare the leopard into releasing the child from its grip.

An official said that the three were taken to the state-run Shri Sayajirao General Hospital in Vadodara.

Doctors there said that the infant had received injuries to his back and legs.