The local police in Nepal today said that a wild leopard killed a 9-year-old girl outside her home in a village in central Nepal.
Narahhari Adhikari, a police official from Kaski district, about 200 km west of Kathmandu, said the girl was playing outside her house on Thursday evening, when the animal ran over her.
"A search by police and local residents resulted in the finding of her body in the woods, about 200 meters from her house," the police official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Experts said that migration, coupled with farmers' reluctance to traditional farming, has caused growth in forest cover, which in turn has led to an increase in the number of attacks by wildlife in rural Nepal. The conflict between wild animals and humans has increased in recent months in Nepal, raising concerns about the safety of people living near forests and national parks.