The hunt is on for an aggressive monkey which has attacked 18 people including a baby in the past 10 days.
Police in Japan are stepping up their search for the wild animal after it broke into homes and schools across Yamaguchi City.
The Japanese macaque attacked and scratched a four-year-old toddler in a first floor flat after sliding open the fly screen on July 8.
“I was vacuuming when I heard my child crying so I turned around and saw the monkey had grabbed her by the legs while she was playing on the floor," the mum told local media.
"It looked like it was trying to drag her outside," she added.
The monkey, thought to be 40 to 50cm tall, caused the girl minor injuries before attacking other people nearby, Kyodo news agency reports.
The monkey, believed to be 40-50cm in height, also invaded a local kindergarten classroom and scratched a four-year-old girl.
Officers are said to be on high alert and have set traps to catch the animal.
Residents have been warned not to leave their windows open and flyers have been handed out telling people to be on the look out.
The animal was still on the loose on Tuesday with public broadcaster NHK reporting around 40 monkey sightings in the area since May.
Several wild species have forced people in Japan to be more cautious in recent years which have brought bear sightings and attacks.
The number of incidents has been linked to a shortage of acorns in the bears' natural habitat, causing them to wander into populated areas in search of food.
Abandoned farmland that was once a natural boundary between habitats is also a challenge in depopulated rural areas.
Wild boar have also been problematic including an incident in a Hiroshima park last year.
The animals injured six people before they were shot dead.
Last year, the northern island of Hokkaido saw 381 more sightings than the previous year, totalling 2,197.
The island is also home to a bear themed amusement park which has a monument of a 9ft bear that killed seven people.
It pays homage to the huge pampering brown bear that attacked the region more than a century ago.
The Sankebetsu brown bear destroyed houses and killed seven villagers during the five-day ordeal.
Now a reconstruction of the attack is open to visitors to inform and warn them of the tragedy.
