COIMBATORE: A 36-year-old man was killed in a suspected leopard attack near Hasanur in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) on Saturday night.

The deceased, identified as Periasamy, a daily wager of Bungalowthotti village, was returning home after work with a food parcel for dinner when he came under attack by the carnivore.

As he didn’t reach home, the family members and villagers searched and found his partially consumed body along a stream near the forest fringes on Sunday. As the body bore injuries consistent with a wild animal attack, the shocked villagers informed the Hasanur police and the forest department.

Forest officials, who inspected the spot, suspected that a leopard had strayed out of the forest and attacked him before feeding on his body. The irate villagers staged a protest refusing to allow the forest department to take the body for a post-mortem.

They blamed the forest department of failing to trap the animal preying on their livestock for the past several months. After the forest officials assured that efforts would be taken to trap the leopard, and patrolling intensified by deploying additional anti-poaching watchers, the villagers withdrew their protest.

The body was subsequently sent to Sathyamangalam Government Hospital for post-mortem. An official of the forest department, however, said that only a post-mortem would reveal the carnivore involved in the attack.