A youth, in an attempt to escape from the animal, ran into a wall and suffered critical injuries. Both victims are under treatment at a private hospital here.

The four-year-old panther found its way into the house of a retired railway locomotive driver, Venkata Rao, and hid under a bed sometime in the wee hours of the morning. When Venkata Rao's son came into the room to pick up his books, the panther growled, scaring the wits out of him.

As he ran out, the panther followed him. But once outside the house, it got distracted by the people running helter-skelter on spotting it. It went near a public tap and mauled a woman when she tried to run away. It then roamed around the area as people watched from distance. It climbed houses and jumped from one building to another forabout half-an-hour.

The panther later entered a thatched house as the inmates ran out. A woman gathered enough courage to lock the animal in.

The panther had a free run of the place. It rested for a while on top of a wall. Then it jumped on to a lighted stove spreading the flames which leapt up to the roof. The small fire was quickly extinguished by people waiting outside for the arrival of forest guards.

Forest Department officials and police personnel arrived in the afternoon. They found it wasn't easy for them to capture the animal as they could not properly aim their tranquiliser guns at it. After several attempts, the forest guards succeeded.

Later they shifted the animal to the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park where it is receiving medical aid. Zoo Curator Anand Mohan said he believed the panther must have come from the nearby hillocks.