A Sumatran tiger attacked and injured two farmers in a town in western Indonesia on Wednesday, following an initial incident a few days earlier, with authorities promising to capture the cat.
This latest attack took place around 2 a.m. local time (9 p.m. GMT Tuesday) in a protected forest reserve in the province of Aceh, which forms the northern tip of the island of Sumatra in the west of the country.
Sumatran tigers are the target of poachers and are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Fewer than 400 of these cats would live in the wild.
They are also victims of conflicts with local people and rampant deforestation that has reduced the surface of their natural habitat.
The two victims of Wednesday’s attack suffered serious injuries to their heads, hands and feet, the local conservation organization told AFP.
“We will rescue the tiger and relocate it,” Agus Rianto, head of the province’s conservation agency, told AFP, adding that the farmers were working illegally inside the sanctuary.
Footage provided by AFP shows a victim with a deep laceration on the back of his head after the attack in Kluet Tengah subdistrict, south of Aceh province.
Soldiers, conservationists and rangers were deployed on Saturday to search after four residents in the same reserve were attacked by a tiger, seriously injuring one person.
There was nothing to indicate that the two attacks were carried out by the same cat.