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A man has been 'stoned to death' by a group of "rogue" monkeys who threw bricks at him from a tree, according to reports.

Dharampal Singh, 72, suffered head and chest injuries in the attack and was later pronounced dead in hospital.

Mr Singh was collecting pieces of dry wood when the group of monkeys launched their attack on Thursday.

It is believed the monkeys had armed themselves with bricks they had collected earlier from a run down building nearby in Tikri, Uttar Pradesh.

Villagers have repeatedly complained that aggressive monkeys in the area have made their lives hell, but the animals are a protected species so little can be done.

(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto) (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Mr Singh’s brother Krishnapal told The Times of India : "Monkeys threw more than 20 bricks at Dharampal on Thursday.

"Thrown from quite a height, the bricks were enough to kill him.

"These rogue monkeys are the real culprits and must pay for it."

Mr Singh's family has lodged a formal complaint and named monkeys as the accused but police insisted they cannot prosecute monkeys and have declared Mr Singh’s death was an accident.

Chitwan Singh, station officer at Doghat police station, said: "How can we register the case against monkeys?

(Image: Getty Images/EyeEm Premium)

"This will make us a laughing stock."

Deadly attacks by monkeys have been on rise throughout the country and wildlife experts say that rhesus macaques are usually to blame - although it is not clear which breed attacked Mr Singh.

Back in 2007 the deputy mayor of India's capital of Delhi died after being attacked by a horde of wild monkeys.

SS Bajwa suffered serious head injuries when he fell from the first-floor terrace of his home on trying to fight them off.

(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

In a bid to curb the monkey problem the city 'employed' larger, more ferocious langur monkeys to go after the smaller groups of Rhesus macaques.

The city has also employed monkey catchers to round them up so they can be moved to forests.

Culling is seen as unacceptable to devout Hindus, who revere the monkeys as a manifestation of the monkey god Hanuman, and often feed them bananas and peanuts.

Pawan Sharma, founder of Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW), told VICE : "Monkeys in the cities is not the actual problem. It's the human errors that have led to an increase in monkey population.

"Cities are connected by forests and technically a city too serves as a habitat to different animals for a variety of reasons."