Authorities in Japan have had to take further action after 42 injuries have been reported caused by monkey attacks in recent weeks in the southern Japan town of Yamaguchi City.
The BBC reported that a city official, who was not willing to give their name, said, "It's rare to see this many attacks in a short period of time." The official said, "Initially only children and women were attacked. Recently elderly people and adult men have been targeted too."
The monkeys are Japanese macaques, which are seen across a big portion of the country, the Japan Times reported. Local authorities in Yamaguchi City are trying to use tranquilizer guns to curb the attacks. Authorities have also tried to capture the animals in traps, but those attempts were not successful.
“All of Yamaguchi city is surrounded by mountains and it’s not rare to see monkeys,” said a city official.
Images of the injuries the monkeys have caused were shown on Japanese television news broadcasts. The BBC reported that one 4-year-old girl was scratched by a monkey who broke into her family's apartment, and in another incident, one of the monkeys was able to breach security to gain access to a kindergarten classroom.
One resident reported that during one invasion by a monkey, he said, “I heard crying coming from the ground floor, so I hurried down,” the father told the Mainichi Shimbun daily. “Then I saw a monkey hunching over my child.”
