A leopard attack injured five people in a village near Vaniyambadi in Vellore district on Thursday. Visuals from the incident showed a crowd, gathered in a field, scattering as the leopard charged at them.

According to The Hindu, the leopard had attacked a calf from another village in the district and rumours about leopard sightings had begun to spread. The animal attacked a couple of humans from Chikanamkuppam and was hiding in the bushes in the nearby Nagaleri lake bed when a crowd of villagers arrived and began hunting for it.

Some reportedly threw stones at it and set fire to the grass, leading the leopard to emerge and attack them.The locals informed the forest department, which began a search and laid traps to capture it. The search was paused on Thursday evening owing to lack of light. Meanwhile, the injured were treated at a hospital.