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Leopard straying into village school in Punjab killed

     Phillaur: A wild leopard who strayed into a school in a village in Punjab and terrorised the students on Saturday was killed by the police today after a nearly three-hour duel. As manythree policemen were injured in the encounter with the tiger. The cat is believed to have swum across the Sutlej river into Phillaur from the dense forests of Himachal Pradesh. The terrified children screamed and scampered for cover as the leopard strolled in the school campus before disappearing into the nearby market. Police said they had little choice but to shoot the animal as they were not equipped with tranquillisers. "We tried to catch the animal alive. But it injured three of our jawans. The leopard then went up to the nearby buildings. With the help of people and after three hours of struggle we cornered him in one of the buildings. Just because it is illegal to kill a wild animal, hence we called up the concerned authorities and considering the interests of the public, we had to kill him," DSP Kanwaljit Singh said. Ashok Kumar, an eyewitness, said he hit the animal after he found it hiding under a bench. "We saw that leopard was hiding behind a bench. Then it went to another room. I hit him with a sickle," he said. It is not clear why the animal strayed into the region and wildlife experts have been called into to ascertain the causes. Environmentalists have in the past warned against the shrinking habitat of wild animals forcing them to move to villages and towns.