A baby has died after being snatched from his mother's lap by a monkey in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Neighbors rushed to help after hearing the mother's screams on Monday afternoon in a village near Agra city, according to Agra Police Assistant Superintendent Abhishek, who goes only by his first name. The baby was just 12 days old.
"They threw stones at the monkey to force it to drop the baby but by the time he abandoned it, he had already attacked him severely on the face," Abhishek told reporters. The child's body was recovered from the terrace of an adjacent house. Police said his injuries indicate he was bitten on the face.
Monkey attacks are common in India-- especially in the country's capital New Delhi, where government offices are surrounded by dozens of monkeys swinging from the trees or lounging in the sun on the sidewalk. It is estimated that monkeys bite over 1,000 people a day nationwide.
Indians are generally critical of efforts to control or manage the monkey population, due to the animal's association with the monkey god Hanuman, a prominent deity in Hinduism, who is believed to bestow courage, strength and longevity to the person who thinks about him. Monkeys are therefore considered sacred by Hindus, and people often pay tribute to him by feeding monkeys. Feeding of monkeys only serves to bring them into further conflict with humans-- resulting in gangs of monkeys invading houses, apartment complexes and government buildings.
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