The cook of a stone-crushing unit at a forest area in Vedurukuppam mandal, 50 km from here, claimed that she was again attacked by a mysterious wild animal on Wednesday evening, after a gap of a month.
According to sources, the woman, Sailaja (50), works at a crushing unit located on a glade overlooking hillocks. While she was cleaning vessels in one corner of the unit, an unidentified animal pounced on her. She sustained bleeding gashes on her arms and feet during the struggle to escape.
Following the attack, the workers searched the surroundings but found no trace of any animal. The woman, however, insisted that it was again a leopard, which had attacked her on the same spot on October 8.
When the first attack occurred, forest officials visited the spot and said that it could be a hyena and ruled out the presence of a leopard in the forest range.
Responding to the second attack, the forest range officer (Karveti Nagaram) said that going by the circumstances of the attack and the surroundings, “We suspect it to be a wolf.” He clarified that there was no hyena in the range.
