Chinese boy, 12, suffers serious injuries in attack by 10 monkeys as he walks home from school
A 12-year-old Chinese boy needed more than 50 stitches in serious wounds to his head arms and body after being attacked by up to 10 monkeys as he walked home from school, mainland media reports.
Xiao Jie, or Little Jie as the child is known, was still being treated for his injuries in hospital on Monday after being left covered in blood at Lu Mountain scenic spot, in Xichang, in Sichuan province, last Friday, the Western China Metropolis Daily reported.
The boy said he had been repeatedly bitten and scratched during the unprovoked attack.
He told the newspaper the harder he tried to fight off the monkeys, the more aggressive they became.
Little Jie was rescued by a group of adults, who took a few minutes to chase the determined monkeys away.
Officials at the scenic spot, which first introduced 101 macaques to the area as a tourist attraction in 1998, said the animals had bred so rapidly that the 600 monkeys living there now were impossible to control.
The animals often scratched and bit tourists, damaged trees and stole the food of visitors, the newspaper said.
The report quoted one local saying that female monkeys could be on heat, which had led to the animals becoming more aggressive.
An official at Lu Mountain management authority said it would be covering the full cost of Little Jie’s medical bills.
Li Zhongwen, of the authority, said it had tried without success to limit the problems caused by the monkeys, including beefing up warnings, adding contraceptive drugs to the monkeys’ food, and capturing and transporting 100 monkeys to other areas.
He said the authority would now try to transport more monkeys away from the scenic spot.
