Authorities in Japan’s western city of Yamaguchi said on Monday that they will be using tranquillizer guns to capture marauding monkeys that have attacked at least 42 people in recent weeks.
Local authorities told AFP that the animals initially only targeted women and children, but now attack men too.
None of the injuries, however, are considered to be critical, with most suffering scratches and bites.
“I heard crying coming from the ground floor, so I hurried down and saw that monkey hunching over my child,” a local father told the Mainichi Shimbun daily.
Last week, another monkey entered a classroom on the second floor of a kindergarten in the Ogori area of Yamaguchi and a four-year-old was scratched. By the time staff arrived to help, the monkey had already escaped.