Leopard shot dead in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: A full-grown leopard, which has been striking terror among the residents of Mettuguda since early this morning, was finally shot dead by noon, but not before it had mauled five persons.

The animal, five feet long and looking well-fed, was first sighted at about 5.20 am as it was sneaking out of the house of one Mr. Mustaq Hussain. Since then it had been prowling in the areas, taking refuge in the bushes in the compound of the railway quarters there.

In the process, it attacked whomever it came across, the victims including a student of the Indian Railways School of Telecommunications, two passers by, one shikari and a police constable.

Finally, it fell to a series of bullets fired by a Police Sub-Inspector, a youngster of 22 years, and the shikari. Then it was 11.45 am and the police and the local inhabitants had scanned the area for hours before sighting the animal on the run. It was in the compound of a high railway official, Mr. A. Lakshmi Narayanan, that the animal was shot dead.

According to Mr. Mustaq Hussain, he was awoken from sleep at 5.20 am on hearing some sounds from the shed where he had a few heads of goat. As he noticed a ‘tiger-like’ animal prowling the area, he raised a hue and cry. The frightened animal took to its heels and entered the hostel of the IRISET a few yards away and mauled a hostel inmate there.