A suspected leopard entered a village in Cooch Behar and severely injured a villager who had gone out of his home to tether his cattle to a bamboo grove on Wednesday afternoon.

The incident occurred in Borodola village under the Shikarpur panchayat of Mathabhanga subdivision. Injured villager Ganesh Barman, 58, was initially rushed to the subdivisional hospital in Mathabhanga.

As his condition worsened, he was taken to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri.

Barman suffered deep claw wounds on his face and right eye.

Hospital sources reported that the impact was so severe that his right eye was nearly dislodged.

Barman suspected it was a leopard attack, but there were no witnesses. He wasn't sure that it was a leopard or a bobcat.

A team from the Mathabhanga police station reached the site for investigation. Foresters also went to the spot.

Foresters and the police also made public announcements using megaphones across the area, urging residents to stay indoors.

Local people were seen patrolling with sticks out of fear. In the past week, this was the second such incident in the Mathabhanga subdivision. A few days back, five people were injured in a leopard attack in Satgachi village, which is under the subdivision.

Bijon Kumar Nath, the additional divisional forest officer of Cooch Behar forest division, said: “Our team was dispatched immediately after receiving the information. We cannot confirm the exact species of the animal yet."

Automatic traps had been set up to cage the animal and patrolling was on, he said.

Villager Gopal Barman said panic had gripped the village.

“Ganesh babu was tying his cattle when the wild animal came out of the bamboo thicket and attacked him. Just a while ago, my son used the same path to return from school. The entire village is terrified. Judging by claw marks, the attacker looks like a leopard,” he said.

"We hope the animal is trapped at the earliest and is taken back into the forest,” said Siddiq Ali, another villager.