On Friday, an 80-year-old woman was dragged away by the leopard when she was sleeping outside her house. The old woman's mutilated body was found around 600 metres away from her house in a sugarcane farm.

The leopard has spread terror in Mahuva taluka after killing two villagers in the last two days.

On Thursday, the body of 70-year-old Mavji Choudhary, a resident of Mahudi village in Mahuva taluka, was found from the deep forest region. The family members of the deceased were sleeping inside the house when the incident occurred.

In a similar incident, that took place on Friday morning, Sarita Nayka who was sleeping outside her house with five of her family members in Botwada village in Mahuva taluka was attacked by the leopard.

The big cat attacked the woman and dragged her to the nearby agriculture fields. In the morning, when family members and the villagers came to know about the incident they started searching for her in the nearby fields. Later, her body was found in the field.

Forest department officials rushed to the spot and installed two cages at the suspected sites to trap the animal.

Mahuva range forest officer Satish Purohit said: "In both the cases, we have found that the victims' internal organs are also missing along with their body parts. In Mavji's case, his kidney and spleen were missing and in Sarita's case her kidney and lever were missing."

"We have tied a dog and a goat as bait near the cages," said Purohit.

He said the villagers in the entire Mahuva taluka have been advised not to sleep in the open at nights and also to arrange for night vigil.