According to officials, a member of the monkey gang that has been terrorising the citizens of a Japanese city for weeks has been apprehended and slain.

In Yamaguchi, the macaques have hurt close to 50 people.

The male ape was discovered on Tuesday night by specially hired hunters on the grounds of a high school.

When it was discovered to be one of the animals responsible for the attacks, it was tranquillized and eventually put to death.

Ever since the attacks on adults and children started approximately three weeks ago, authorities have been looking for the monkeys. The majority of wounds were minor bites and scrapes.

According to a representative from the neighbourhood agriculture department, incidents are continuously being recorded, and the hunt for additional gang members is ongoing.

He said, “Eyewitnesses describe monkeys of all sizes, and even after the capture, we’ve been getting tales of further attacks.”

The captured monkey was roughly 0.5 (1 ft. 7in) metres tall and believed to be four years old.

Japanese macaques are widespread throughout the nation and, in some regions, are regarded as pests because they eat crops and occasionally break into homes.

Attacks like the ones in Yamaguchi are infrequent, though.

A city official remarked before the capture that it was “unusual to see this many attacks in a short period of time.” They claimed that at first, only women and children were attacked, adding, “Recently, older people and adult men have also been targeted.”

Police patrols that were established in early July have been ineffective up until this point, despite earlier attempts to capture the animals using traps failing.

According to reports, a monkey broke into a four-year-old girl’s apartment and scratched her, while an animal also made its way into a kindergarten class. Japanese macaques, once a threatened species, have recently experienced population growth.

According to studies from Yamagata University, this has caused “severe disputes” with people. One reason could be changed in human behaviour and forest ecosystems.