Watch: Monkey Pins Newborn To Floor In Failed ‘Kidnap’ Attempt

A monkey was caught on video pinning a newborn baby to the floor, refusing to budge, attacking villagers who came close to it and tried to ward the animal off.

The primate reportedly entered a home in a remote village in Karnataka, India, and tried to “steal” a newborn baby.

In the video, recorded by one of the villagers who witnessed the bizarre scene, the monkey was seen sitting guard over the baby, pinning the newborn to the floor with both its hands. It was not immediately clear whether the baby was already on the ground when the monkey invaded the house or the animal brought the child there somehow.

The monkey and the baby were surrounded by terrified villages, all trying to make the monkey leave the child alone. However, every time a villager tries to get close to the monkey, it snarled and viciously scratched at him or her.

At no point during the video did the monkey try and hurt the newborn. However, it did reportedly try and lift up the baby, which was taken as a sign by villages that it intended to “kidnap” the newborn. Also, the baby appeared to have some bruises on the face, which might suggest it received a rougher treatment before the cameras started rolling.

While many of the villagers were busy clicking pictures and recording videos of the rare sight, one of them emptied a bag of food at a little distance away from the baby, in an attempt to lure the animal away from the newborn, but to no avail.

While the baby screamed and cried, the monkey appeared to possessively protect the child as if it was protecting one of its own. When a woman tried distracting the animal by stepping close to it, the monkey snapped at her, biting down on the edge of her skirt, with villagers gasping all around.

Finally, while the monkey was distracted by the woman’s skirt, a man snatched the newborn up from underneath the animal and to safety. As soon as the monkey realized its hold on the baby was gone, it angrily leapt up on a bench but was soon warded off by the bystanders.

It is unclear if the monkey was caught by the people and handed over to the forest officials.

Back in April, a two-week-old infant was allegedly snatched by a monkey while the child was sleeping beside its mother inside a house in Cuttack, Odisha, in India. After a 24-hour-long search by the authorities, the lifeless remains of the child were located inside a well.

“The monkey took the baby from inside a mosquito net. It [the monkey] was spotted by Sarojini [the child’s mother], who immediately had raised an alarm, but the creature jumped over the roof and disappeared from her view,” child's aunt Rajnandini Nayak told reporters.