Bijnor, Jul 18 (IANS): A leopard mauled to death a 50-year-old woman, Guddi Devi, in the Makhwada village of Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor district while she was working in a paddy field.

The incident happened on Monday afternoon and is is the ninth such death in the district in the past three months.

Hearing her cries, farmers working in nearby fields rushed to her rescue. The leopard ran away, but Devi had died by then.

After the news spread, scores of farmers under the banner of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) reached the spot and staged a protest against forest authorities demanding that the leopard be caught and released into a forest area.

Sub-divisional forest officer Gyan Singh said, "Our staff rushed to the spot and laid traps to catch the leopard. Teams have been deployed in the area and they are using drones to trace the animal. We cannot say that it is the same leopard that has attacked other villagers in the district in the recent past."

Notably, several leopard attacks have been reported across the district in the past three months. Nine people, including three children and two women, were killed while 18 others were injured in these attacks.

On July 11, a leopard was allegedly beaten to death with sticks by locals in Shahjadpur village of Bijnor after the feline attacked and injured three persons.