A stray leopard mauled five persons in Bandhunagar village in Jalpaiguri district, after which a mob thrashed the animal to death when it was tranquilised by the forest department personnel.
The leopard strayed out of Baikunthapur forest division, entered the village under Rajganj block and mauled five persons, Baikunthapur DFO P R Pradhan said.
The leopard created panic in the area. After getting information, forest guards came to the village and caught the animal, Belakoba Ranger Sanjay Dutt said.
Of the five injured, the condition of three was stated to be serious.
As panicked villagers ran helter skelter, the animal too was scared and hid at a place.
The forest department was informed, its personnel came to the village and managed to tranquilise the leopard, Pradhan said.
Angry villagers then pounced on the unconscious animal and beat it to death, he said adding the forest officials could do nothing as they were heavily outnumbered by the villagers.
The carcass was sent for postmortem.
