Indian family claims monkey snatched baby later found dead in a well
The infant was reportedly sleeping at his home in the eastern state of Orissa when he was taken by a rhesus macaque, a species with a reddish-pink face common across India
A newborn was sleeping under a mosquito net at his home in eastern India when, his mother claimed, a monkey scooped him up and carried him away.
The mother told authorities that she watched helplessly as the animal invaded their home over the weekend in a village in Banki, Orissa, and took her days-old son.
“She raised an alarm but the monkey quickly leapt over the roof and vanished out of sight,” police sub-inspector S.M. Baral said.
After an emotional day-long search for the child, he was found dead Sunday in a well behind the home, where authorities and the child’s parents suspect the animal may have dropped him.
“It seems while the monkey was jumping from the terrace my baby somehow slipped from its clutches and fell in the well,” the child’s father, identified as Rama Krushna Nayak, told The Times of India.
Authorities called it “a very rare case,” telling BBC News that monkeys in the area have been known to damage personal property but not take people.