Indonesia monkey attacks wound 18 before macaque trapped

Animal trappers in Indonesia caught an adult long-tailed macaque late Thursday after officials said it attacked 18 people in Tembilahan on Sumatra island over two weeks.

Tembilahan fire and rescue service head Junaidy Ismail told AFP on Friday there had been 19 attacks and 18 victims, with one person attacked twice. The monkey bit and clawed residents, including children and elderly people, and some victims needed more than a dozen stitches and rabies shots.

The rescue service released video on Friday showing the monkey alive in a cage. Town official Ari Syuria urged residents to remain cautious, saying there could be other monkeys attacking people.

Forty schools remained shut on Friday, and local authorities ordered three days of online learning for hundreds of pupils. The local government said schools would reopen next Monday if the situation was deemed safe.

The monkey was transferred to Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province, where the nature conservation agency will carry out blood and observational tests. Agency official Ujang Holisudin told AFP officials wanted to establish whether the monkey was carrying any diseases.

Human-animal conflicts are common in Indonesia, especially where rainforest clearing for palm oil plantations is shrinking habitats for animals including monkeys, elephants and tigers.