Leopard snatches 3-year-old girl from mother's lap before 'ripping her limbs and head off'
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
The remains of a 3-year-old girl was found a day after she was snatched from her mother's lap by a leopard in the state of West Bengal in India.
According to reports, Pranita Oraon was sitting with her mother, Puja, in the courtyard of their home in the worker's quarters of Garganda tea estate in Alipurduar district when the animal attacked them on the night of January 15.
The child's body was found the next morning within miles from the home. The animal reportedly jumped over a fence to enter the tea estate where Puja works as a laborer. This is the third killing of a child in the area in only five weeks by leopards. The head and all four limbs of the girl were torn off, some media reports claimed.
Puja told the Times of India that she tried to fight off the powerful animal. She said: "I tried my best. It was so large... I could not save her." Sibu Chhetri, a local school teacher from the area, told the Hindustan Times: "She (Puja) was cooking in front of her house and the child was with her. As the leopard took away the kid, the mother ran after the animal and her shouting attracted other villagers."