A 12-day-old baby boy was killed when a monkey snatched it from his breast feeding mother in India in the latest warning sign that primates are being forced into cities to search for food amid environmental destruction.

The child, named Sunny, was taken after the monkey entered the family home in Agra. His mother, Neha, gave chase along with family members, but the baby was later found lying blood-soaked on a neighbour’s roof.

Deemed as holy animals by Hindu, in deference to the simian deity Hanuman, monkeys are common throughout urban India and often snatch food, drink and shiny objects such as phones and cameras from people. Taking a human child, however, is extremely rare.

However there is anecdotal evidence of monkeys becoming more aggressive in cities, with residents having to erect screens and shutters to keep them out of their homes. In several incidents people have returned to their houses to find monkeys raiding their kitchens or stealing gadgets and jewellery.

The baby’s father, an rickshaw driver named Yogesh, told the Times of India: “Before we could understand anything, the monkey took away our son. After a chase the monkey left our son on a neighbour’s roof, but it was too late. [He] was heavily bleeding and had no pulse.”