A brave Indian woman reportedly chased after a leopard for over a mile, fighting it with her bare hands in order to rescue her young son from its claws.

The woman, identified as Kiran Baiga, from Badi Jhiriya tribal village, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, was reportedly sitting outside her hut with her three children, including an infant in her lap, on November 28, when a leopard suddenly pounced on her six-year-old by, Rahul. Before she could even react, the strong feline grabbed the boy in its jaws and took off running toward the nearby Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Kiran quickly handed her infant to her other child, told them to stay in their hut, and started running after the leopard, in a desperate attempt to save her child.

Photo: Jane Stroebel/Unsplash

After running about a mile in the night, Kiran caught up with the leopard just as it sat down with its prey. Armed with nothing but a strong maternal instinct, the young woman allegedly lunged at the feline, freeing her son from its claws with her bare hands. However, the leopard didn’t want to part with its meal so easily and attacked Kiran right after she freed her child.

Kiran suffered injuries trying to fend off the leopard’s attack, and she would have probably ended up as its victim along with her son, if not for a mob of villagers who had heard about the feline’s attack and had rushed towards the national park to help her. Seeing and hearing the villages and hearing their screams, the feline ran off into the jungle.

Jagran English reports that both Kiran and her six-year-old boy were injured during the ordeal but they both escaped with their lives, which itself is a miracle. Rahul is currently being treated in the hospital.

The tribal people living near Sanjay Gandhi National Park claim that such attacks by wild animals have become very frequent. Badi Jhiriya village is located in the buffer zone, and locals live in constant fear for their lives and those of their loved ones.