A 34-year-old woman in Singapore, Durga Devi, was attacked by a wild boar earlier this week (1 May) at Bukit Panjang and had flesh from her leg and behind bitten off by the animal.
According to her sister Sri, Durga was on her way home from work at the time at about 11.50pm, alighting from the bus at Block 270 Bangkit Road when the wild boar charged at her.
Durga was alone at the bus stop at the time after the bus had driven off, and she was bitten on her lower right leg – the boar was an adult roughly the size of two dogs, and it bit on Durga’s lower right leg firmly.
She struggled to free herself from the huge boar and got thrown onto the road by the animal during the attack, and she then noticed an oncoming bus while she was lying on the road.
She then managed to get herself back on the pavement and away from the oncoming traffic before the traffic lights turned green, as the wild boar remained nearby.
The wild boar then attacked her once again, and she noticed that the wild boar was limping as it hustled towards her, this time biting her right thumb and right back side before throwing her onto the road again.
Durga suffered injuries all over the right side of her body as she was attacked a total of four times by the wild boar.
She screamed for help after seeing a male jogger passing by, and the jogger then chased the boar away and helped Durga off the road, before calling the ambulance.
Her sister arrived at the scene and followed Durga in the ambulance as their mother alerted the authorities to what happened.
Durga was then sent to Tan Tock Seng Hospital and has remained warded ever since, undergoing emergency surgery to reattach the ruptured veins on her hand, as well as operating on the rest of her open wounds.
She went through a total of 4 surgery so far.
Wild boar caught and killed
The group director of wildlife management at NParks, Dr Adrian Loo, said that they were alerted to the incident on 2 May and found the wild boar lying by the side of the road.
The animal was assessed and found with two broken back legs and has since been euthanised humanely.
Dr Look also urged the public to stay calm should they encounter a wild boar and slowly distance themselves from the animal, as well as refrain from provoking, feeding or approaching the animal.
Images source: Sri Devi