Video Shows Leopard Mauling Six People in India School Invasion

A male leopard entered a school in Bangalore, India on Sunday – leading to a ten-hour long standoff between the large cat and wildlife officers.

Six people were reportedly injured during efforts to remove the leopard – including a scientist, three forest rangers, a member of the school staff, and a TV news cameraman. The eight-year-old leopard was tranquilized and taken to recover at the Bannerghatta Biological Park.

The alarm was raised about the beast when surveillance footage showed it entering the Vibgyor International School's premises. Video also shows the animal running around the swimming pool before attacking a man who had tried to climb up a wire fence to safety.

"It was a long struggle to capture the leopard" senior police official S. Boralingaiah toldreporters. "Although it was injected with tranquilisers it could be captured only around 20.15 local time when the medication took full effect."

Wildlife official Ravi Ralph told the BBC that he believes the leopard came from a patch of forest not far from the school.

Bangalore is often referred to as India's Silicon Valley, known for its modern metropolis and thriving information technology community. The population of Bangalore grew by 47 percent in the decade between 2001 and 2011, and the size of the city swelled over 300 percent in 20 years. The urban sprawl has eaten into rural areas and forests on the city's outskirts, invading leopards' natural habitats and forcing them to become accidental or unwanted intruders.

Last September, the first official survey of leopards in India revealed that the total population of spotted felines to be somewhere between 12,000 and 14,000. Previous estimations put the figure anywhere between 10,000 and 45,000 nationwide.