A 3-year-old girl in India has been miraculously rescued from the clutches of a leopard after the child's mother chased the animal and beat it down with a stick.

The toddler, Aaraksha Poppulwar, was having dinner in the courtyard of her home in Chandrapur, a city in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, Tuesday night. The leopard pounced on the child and swiftly dragged her away. The child's mother rushed to her rescue, chasing the leopard with a stick. The woman hit the animal in its mouth until it dropped her daughter and fled, India Today reported.

Aaraksha suffered severe injuries in the attack and was admitted to a nearby hospital for treatment.

"My daughter was having food while I had gone to bathe. When I came out, I saw the leopard attacking her and taking her away. Even after the leopard dropped my child, I had to repeatedly attack it so that it ran away and didn't attack us again," Jyoti Poppulwar, the brave mother who fought off the animal, recollected.

According to reports, 15 people, including six young children, were killed in wild animal attacks in the village this year. The same leopard has killed three people and injured one in the past three months, the Times of India reported.

Residents have been demanding action against frequent leopard attacks in the area. They took some forest department employees hostage Tuesday night demanding the animal be put down.

"In view of the public displeasure, the Forest Department issued orders to kill the leopard late that night. It was only then that the people let go of the officials who were held, hostage. A search operation has been undertaken to find and kill the leopard," a forest officer said.

"Two teams with tranquilizing experts and a shooter have been deployed in the area. They have been instructed to first try to tranquilize and capture the problem animal. If the efforts fail, shoot the beast as the last resort," Chief Conservator of Forest, Prakash Lonkar, said.

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