KAMPALA, April 11 (Xinhua) -- A leopard killed a two-year-old child in a fishing village in western Uganda near Queen Elizabeth National Park, authorities have said.
Bashir Hangi, communications officer at Uganda Wildlife Authority, told Xinhua by telephone on Thursday that the incident happened on Wednesday night in Kasese district.
"A leopard escaped from the park and ate someone's goat at Kasenyi fishing village. The residents then became rowdy and started attacking it. While it went to hide in one of the houses, it found there a child and killed him," Hangi said.
He said the animal was later killed by the angry residents before park authorities could intervene.
"These are some of the challenges we keep facing but we are trying as much as possible to minimize such incidents of wildlife-human conflict. We are asking the residents to always cooperate with us," Hangi said.
Last year in May, a leopard in the same park mauled a child whose father was a game ranger.
Weeks before that attack, farmers around the park poisoned and killed 11 lions after complaining about the big cats' eating their cattle and goats.
