Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh) [India], January 4 (ANI): A search and rescue operation by the forest department officials continued on Wednesday after a leopard was spotted in the basement of a residential complex in Greater Noida, a day ago.

There was panic among residents of the society where the leopard was spotted.

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"Seven teams have been working in the rescue operation and have been deployed at the spot since yesterday night," said District/Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Gautam Buddha Nagar, Pramod Srivastava.

He further said that the movement of the leopard was tracked at the basement and the ground floor (+1). "We are hopeful of rescuing the leopard today" the forest official said.

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A team of forest officials led by the DFO arrived at the society for the second day and launched a search operation.

"Today, a wild animal was spotted again. We verified the information and the rescue operation is on," said District/Divisional Forest Officer (DFO).

Forest department officials confirmed that the animal was a leopard.

"Two days ago, we received information that a wild animal was spotted in the Ajnara Le Garden society. Verification was done but no evidence was found," said DFO Gautam Buddha Nagar.

Further details are awaited.

According to reports, a few years ago a leopard had ventured into the Sadullapur Village near Ecotech3 in Greater Noida and forest department officials rescued the animal and released it into the Shivalik forest range near Saharanpur. (ANI)

(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)