India: Heroic villager fights off ferocious leopard armed only with stick

Incredible footage has emerged of an Indian man fending off an attacking wild leopard armed with only a stick.

In the confrontation filmed in a village near Indore, Madhya Pradesh, the community watchman beats the animal away to prevent it attacking local residents.

He is seen fending off the big cat, landing two blows to its head, before it strikes, and he falls to the floor.

Villagers filming the attack from the roof of a hut nearby.

The man manages to ward off the animal with his stick, and it flees.

The man did not suffer serious injuries as a result of the encounter, reports local media.

Communities in Indore have long lived under the threat of leopard attacks, with nine-year-old girl and six-year-old boy among nine people to be killed in a two month spate of attacks last year.

In last year's Indian elections, rural communities blamed the government for placing them at risk of leopard attacks by failing to provide basic infrastructure such as electrical lighting and street lighting.