Animal traffic: he was carrying a lion cub hidden in his luggage

The individual who attempted to smuggle the animal into a plastic bag and traveled from Thailand to India. He tried to run away but was arrested

A pbadenger who had hidden in his luggage a leopard aged barely a month was arrested when he arrived in Chennai, India, from Thailand, local police said.

The puppy, weighing barely a kilo, was hidden in a plastic bag concealed in a hand baggage, with which the pbadenger had boarded his Thai Airlines flight to Bangkok.

Airport officials said they heard strange noises from luggage and that the man had tried to let the airport terminal work.

"He was very elusive in his answers and that is why we proceeded to open his luggage for a better examination," said an airport official.

According to the same source, "the animal was disoriented and seemed weakened".

Until now, the nationality of the 45 year old pbadenger who has been placed under arrest is unknown. A video published by the Indian airport authorities shows agents who feed the leopard with milk with a bottle.

AO Limatoshi, head of the Wildlife Crime Service in Chennai, told AFP that the pbadenger "was being questioned about the origin of the animal", in an attempt to determine what s & # 39; s 39, there was an international smuggling network.

Leopards are native to the Asian continent, but their current state is extremely vulnerable, with a population in constant decline due to habitat loss and illegal hunters negotiating the skin.

In India, leopards are an endangered species. It is estimated that the leopard population in India is between 12,000 and 140,000 people and that their trafficking is illegal.

(With information from AFP)