Animal trappers have cut short the two-week rampage of a monkey that randomly attacked 18 people on Sumatra island in Indonesia, prompting dozens of schools to close in fear.
The animal, an adult long-tailed macaque, wounded 18 residents of the town of Tembilahan, biting and clawing at its victims — most of whom it targeted when they were alone.
Those hurt included children and elderly people.
“As of today, there were 19 attacks, with 18 victims. One victim was attacked twice,” Tembilahan fire and rescue service head Junaidy Ismail told AFP on Friday.
Some required over a dozen stitches and rabies shots.
The monkey was caught late on Thursday in a trap set up in town, and the rescue service issued a video Friday showing it alive, seemingly stressed, behind bars in a cage.
Town official Ari Syuria urged residents to remain cautious as the monkey may have operated as part of a gang.
“The concern is that there may be other monkeys attacking people,” Ari said in an Instagram post.
Forty schools remained shuttered on Friday, with three days of online learning ordered for hundreds of Tembilahan pupils.
Doors will reopen next Monday if the situation is deemed safe, the local government said in a statement.
The monkey has been transferred to Pekanbaru, the capital of Sumatra’s Riau province, where the nature conservation agency will carry out blood and observational tests.
“We want to establish whether the monkey is carrying any diseases,” agency official Ujang Holisudin told AFP.
Human-animal conflicts are common in the vast Southeast Asian archipelago, especially in areas where the clearing of rainforest to make way for palm oil plantations is shrinking the habitats of animals such as monkeys, elephants and tigers.
