Leopards have killed two persons and injured two others in the periphery of Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai since Sunday night.

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With this, six persons have fallen prey to the wild cat this month alone. Nine people have been killed this year in leopard attacks.

Raju Yadav, 18, a resident of Aarey Colony in suburban Goregaon was killed when he was attacked by a leopard late on Sunday night, a senior police officer said.

Kashababu Pujari, 55, a resident of Gaibaccha durgah located inside the park in Mulund in northern Mumbai was killed early Monday morning.

The injured, both government employees, were attempting to tranquilise a leopard that had strayed into Raheja Vihar
housing colony on the outskirts of the national park in Borivali when the cat attacked them. Both have been admitted to the nearby Bhagwati Hospital.

They have been identified as Vaibhav Patil, a forest employee, and police constable Suresh Dhamapurkar.

Meanwhile, forest authorities and the police managed to tranquilise the leopard after trying for six-and-a-half hours from 12 noon, Sanjay Gandhi National Park sources said.

The first dart successfully put the leopard to sleep, but by the time authorities arranged resources to move it out, it woke up, sources said. The operation was completed at around 6.30 pm and the forest authorities took the special cage inside the SGNP, the sources added.