5/17: India's Monkey Man

[Undertoad]

Here's a victim, who says that the bruises were caused when the monkey man tried to bite him.

More on the story:

The death, along with pictures in the local dailies of victims with scratch marks on their upper torsos, have shaken Delhites - many of whom initially dismissed the occurrences as "superstitious mumbo-jumbo."

The weather only added to concerns. Power outages in summer are common in Delhi, forcing residents of congested lower-income housing projects to sleep on rooftops to beat the heat.

The panic only seems to be spreading. Residents of the area talk of sleepless nights spent waiting for cries of "bandar aaya hai" ("the monkey is here").

"There's certainly mass hysteria here," said Ashok Nagpal, associate professor at the University of Delhi's Department of Psychology, "But there's definitely something more to it. It's too early to reach a conclusion though and until I probe further into the matter I can't see where to pitch my views."

Man or superman, ape or super-ape, the Delhi police are taking no chances. Police officers have "shoot at sight" orders.

(That last bit sounds like a bad Star Trek-TOS plot. "Kill the alien! Kill it now!" "No Captain. We must study the creature and learn from it.")