Local people captured the man and handed him over to the police. (Representational)

A 47-year-old man hacked and seriously injured a woman school teacher inside a classroom in front of her students in Odisha's Cuttack district on Monday, police said.

Local people captured the man and handed him over to the police.

The incident occurred in a government-run school at Ambapada village in Niali block when the accused entered the classroom and attacked the teacher with a dagger, police said.

The teacher, a married woman of the same village, suffered grievous injuries in her hand, head and abdomen.

She was first taken to a nearby hospital from where she was shifted to the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack as her condition deteriorated, police said.

The accused, also a resident of Ambapada, had run away from the school campus with the blood-stained weapon in hand.

A group of people chased and captured him from the bus stand when he was about to board a Bhubaneswar-bound bus.

Police and the locals are not able to figure out the motive behind the attack by the man who is father of three grown-up children.

Police claimed that the man appears to be mentally troubled.