A leopard was spotted leaving the Korum Mall in Thane early on Wednesday morning. The leopard is believed to have entered the mall after scaling the walls.

CCTV footage showed the wild cat leaving the mall premises around 5.30 am on Wednesday morning. Though the forest department officials say that the leopard has left the mall premises, a search is being conducted to locate it.

The Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC) of Thane has also reached the spot after receiving information regarding the presence of the leopard.

“As per the information we received from the mall, the leopard entered into the parking area after climbing the safety walls of the mall,” said Santosh Kadam, in-charge of RDMC, Thane.

Search operations being carried out at Hotel Satkar residency near Korum Mall, Thane, where a leopard was spotted early on Wednesday morning. (Praful Gangurde/HT Photo)

Forest department officials, who also had reached the spot, said the leopard was last seen moving towards the Vasant Vihar residential society from the mall premises.

“The leopard left the mall premises around 5:30 am, and has moved towards the Vasant Vihar residential area. The forest department team is conducting a search operation to track the leopard’s exact location,” said an official from forest department, Thane.

To avoid any untoward incident, the mall may remain shut for the day.

First Published: Feb 20, 2019 09:56 IST