A monkey in Japan has been caught and killed after a recent rise in bizarre attacks on people.
Around 50 people have recently been injured in the city of Yamaguchi on Honshu island, prompting local police to work to try and identify a culprit.
Authorities were unsure if the recent attacks were the result of one particularly aggressive monkey or if it was the work of a group. There have been further reports of people carrying umbrellas and scissors to protect themselves.
A group of hunters specially commissioned to track down the monkeys found one around 1ft 7inches tall, roughly four years old, hanging around the grounds of a local high school.
After it was identified as one of the monkeys behind the recent incursions, the monkey was tranquilised and then put down.
"They are so smart, and they tend to sneak up and attack from behind, often grabbing at your legs," city official Masato Saito said.
He added: "I have never seen anything like this my entire life."
Saito said anyone confronted by a monkey should not look them in the eye, make yourself look as big as possible, such as by spreading open your coat, then back away as quietly as possible without making sudden moves.
The macaque monkey is native to Japan and sightings of them are not particularly unusual, but regular attacks are not common and experts are unsure why the number has dramatically increased recently.
Yamaguchi is surrounded by mountains, so the presence of macaque monkeys is rarely a surprise.
Some believe shrinking habitat is one possible reason behind attacks as this could have forced the animals further into cities.
There has also been a recent population boom.
With the kill and capture of one macaque completed, Japanese authorities are unlikely to expect the attacks to stop and already there have been reports of more.
An official at the local agricultural department told AFP: "Eyewitnesses describe monkeys of different sizes, and even after the capture, we've been getting reports of new attacks.
"Initially only children and women were attacked. Recently elderly people and adult men have been targeted too."
One mum recently told local media about a terrifying incident in which a monkey tried to snatch her baby.
She said: "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.
"It looked like it was trying to drag her outside."
A dad reported to the Mainichi Shimbun daily he heard "crying coming from the ground floor" and went downstairs to discover "a monkey hunching over my child".
Other recent reports have caused concern and a four-year-old girl was scratched after a macaque opened the screen door of her apartment, while another invaded a kindergarten.
