Humans are being used as bait in a bid to catch a man-eating leopard after it killed three people in the space of a week in India's western state of Gujarat, with forest rangers spending the night in a cage to lure the animal.

The wild cat has killed three, including two children, and injured five people in the Dahod district since mid-November.

With goats failing to do the trick to entice the animal, three forest officials spent Friday night inside one of the nine cages placed around the forest in which the leopard is active.

Admitting this was a new tactic, S K Shrivastava, the region’s Chief Conservator of Forests, said: “Once in a while, such experimentation is needed.”

The eight other cages spread through the jungle contained animals.