Jaipur, Dec 12 (IANS): A panther on Thursday entered a posh locality here in the afternoon and a search for it was on with drones till the time of filing this report.

It triggered panic among the locals while the police and forest department teams were seen searching for the animal.

The police were informed immediately after locals spotted the animal on Takhteshahi road near Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg.

Acting quickly, the police stopped traffic and sought a drone to trace the animal. However, traffic movement normalised after a few minutes.

Eyewitnesses said that the panther's movement was seen in four to five houses which are being monitored by the drone.

A CCTV footage of a panther was seen in a house at around 4.40 p.m. Forest officials said that the panther must have entered the city on Wednesday night and had hid himself somewhere during the day.

Arindam Tomar, wildlife officer, said, "The animal seems to be lost and hence must have entered the city. Our team is there trying to trace the animal."

Speaking on the reasons for wild animals entering city areas quite frequently, he said, "This has been happening earlier too that wild animals enter urban locales being lost.

"Our team's operation will continue in the night and we are closely monitoring locations where the panther might be," he added.

The forest officials said that the panther must have come from the Jhalana forest area which is quite near to this location.

Two years back, a panther entered this area which was later tranquilised and rescued by forest officials.