PILIBHIT: It was a narrow escape for school children at a government school in Keeratpur village when a leopard entered the campus from adjacent fields and attacked a dog.
The leopard killed the dog and dragged the carcass to the fields near the Barahi forest range of the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) on Wednesday.
The petrified children ran into their classrooms and locked themselves in.
When the principal Nidhi Diwakar arrived at the school, the children told her about the incident and she immediately alerted the forest department.
A field forest team, led by forest inspector Ajmer Yadav, visited the spot and took photographs of pugmarks.
PTR deputy director Naveen Khandelwal said that from the pug marks, it was evident that the leopard was an adult.
He said that he had directed the Barahi range officer to deploy a picket of armed forest personnel at the school from Thursday for the safety of the students and to monitor the movement of the leopard.
He said that the leopard would hopefully retreat to the forest in a day or two.
Meanwhile, the children continued with their classes with no security around. The village head Ranjit Singh, meanwhile, has asked villagers to accompany their children to the school in groups.