BANGALORE, INDIA – A family safari turned into a nightmare when a leopard jumped onto their tour bus and clawed a 12-year-old boy through an open window.
The scary attack happened Friday at Bannerghatta Biological Park near Bangalore. Wild video shows the big cat crouched next to the safari vehicle before it suddenly pounced and climbed right up the side of the bus.
Suhas, the boy who got hurt, ended up with deep cuts on his hand where the leopard’s claws got him. The whole thing was caught on camera – you can see the leopard wouldn’t give up, even chasing after the bus when the driver tried to speed away.
Park workers rushed to help the kid with first aid, then got him to a hospital fast. He’s back home now, but those claw marks were no joke.
“The leopard was climbing up the bus and the boy’s hand was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Surya Sen, who runs the park. “We got him patched up and checked him over good.”
This isn’t even the first time something like this has happened at this park. Just last year, another leopard pulled the same stunt – climbed right onto a safari bus and stuck its head through the window. Luckily that time nobody got hurt.
Now the government is fed up and cracking down. They’re telling all the wildlife parks they better put mesh screens over the windows and anywhere tourists might stick their hands out. The forest minister isn’t messing around – he wants this stuff stopped before someone gets killed.
The park people say they’ve covered up all the openings now and are drilling safety rules into their drivers’ heads. But you have to wonder – how many close calls will it take before they really get this figured out?
Bannerghatta sits right outside Bangalore, where all the tech companies are, so it gets tons of visitors who want to see real tigers and leopards up close. Maybe a little too close, as this kid found out the hard way.
