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Scourge of the monkey man
16/05/2001 20:52 - (SA)
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ONCE BITTEN: Indian woman Om Kali displays a wound in New Delhi. Kali says she was attacked by an ape-like creature. (Pawel Kopczynski, Reuters)
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New Delhi - Police ran short of vehicles to chase dozens of reported sightings of a super-powered "monkey man" as panicked residents spilled out of their homes in fear.
A pregnant woman died late on Tuesday night while trying to escape as neighbours screamed that the monkey man was coming.
Mass hysteria has swept India's capital following unconfirmed reports of late night attacks by the so-called monkey man, who many
witnesses describe as 1.2 metres tall with a hairy body and sharp metal
claws.
Police have blamed the panic on uneducated poor people, many of
them superstitious and strong believers in the supernatural. Their
fears may be exacerbated by sweltering heat and darkness due to
electricity cuts.
But police also took the time to tell the public they have been unsuccessful at trying to nab the elusive attacker who allegedly has been sighted in more than 50 locations in New Delhi during a single night.
Two deaths
The six months pregnant woman sleeping on her rooftop terrace slipped down the stairs when neighbours screamed from nearby rooftops that the monkey man had struck, the Statesman newspaper reported. She was rushed to a hospital where she died a few hours later.
One man was killed late on Monday when he jumped off the roof of his house during a purported attack, screaming, "The monkey has come!" Many people who called the police claiming to have been attacked by
the monkey man have scratches on their bodies, the Times of India
reported. However, veterinarians who examined the marks said they
weren't caused by any animal, the newspaper said.
"It seems a group of people in masks are terrorising people," the
Statesman quoted an unidentified police officer as saying.
However, the harassed police force in New Delhi stepped up patrolling and faced a shortage of vehicles. It also urged the state-run power company to ensure uninterrupted power supply from dawn to dusk so that panicked residents would feel safer with the lights on. The power-starved capital routinely has power cuts during the sweltering summer.
Mystic beaten
"It is nothing but mass hysteria. We have increased patrolling in
areas which have reported such cases," said Manoj Kumar Lal, deputy
commissioner of police in east Delhi.
The public's fear of the monkey man is so great that residents of
Noida, a New Delhi suburb, caught and beat up a 1.2 metre-tall
wandering Hindu mystic, mistaking him for the simian terror, the
Statesman said. The mystic, identified only as Jamir, was found by
a crowd of people in a nearby forest performing some rituals,
beaten up and handed to the police.
Thousands of people crowded outside the police station for a glimpse of the alleged monkey man, causing a near stampede. Police said they had a difficult time sending away the people even after they had established the man was innocent. - Sapa-AP
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