Yesterday morning, Nepal’s Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu was shut down for half an hour after a leopard was spotted on its runway.
A pilot for a private airline noticed the wild cat walking down the airport’s only runway at 7:45am and immediately alerted airport officials.
The only international flight scheduled to arrive at the time was requested to delay landing. Runway operations were stopped until it was confirmed that the animal was hiding in one of the airport drains.
About 50 people including firefighters, security forces and wildlife officials were dispatched on the task to capture the leopard. The search was put off until later that evening. A spokesperson for the airport said, “We resumed the hunt later in the night after the animal’s eyes started shining in the dark.”
