A video footage which surfaced online shows the horrific moment a toddler was snatched by a monkey and dragged away by her hair as she played outside on her skate-scooter. The video showed a wild monkey pouncing on the toddler in a village near Chongqing, southwestern China on 19 April.

The little girl was playing alone on her skate-scooter in the quiet street before the monkey crawled up to her, grabbed her head and viciously pulled her into the alley where it came from. Fortunately for the child, a bystander quickly sprung into action and rescued it from the clutches of the animal before it could harm her.

According to the girl’s mother, who has only been identified as Liu, the incident happened on the afternoon of 19 April when she was cooking inside. The three-year-old was scratched in the face by the monkey and was left with a scar on the side of her head. Liu said her child was taken to hospital for treatment and a vaccination.

Local officials tied the monkey to numerous other attacks in the local area. An initial investigation revealed that the monkey had previously attacked local villagers on multiple occasions. The Police said the monkey came from nearby mountains and that they are unable to catch it. Local police say such animal live in the mountains nearby and occasionally comes to the residential area trouble the villagers.

The authorities said that they will turn the monkey over to the wild animal protection department once it is caught to protect residents. The local forestry department told the media that attacks by wild monkeys are sporadic incidents and efforts are being made to prevent them from attacking humans again.