Leopard smashes through window of honeymoon couple

Honeymooners in India got the fright of their lives when they "felt something moving on the bed", before waking in terror to find a leopard had broken into their hotel room.

The giant cat smashed through a window of the Nainital Hotel around 4.45am, and the newlyweds watched in horror as it took refuge in the bathroom, the Daily Mail reported.

A short clip of the cat has now surfaced on social media showing the young one-and-half-year-old leopard before it escaped out of the washroom vent.

Sumit Rathore and his wife Shivani, from Meerut, cowered behind their bed after locking the door and raising the alarm in the Himalayan resort town, reports NDTV.

Once hotel staff were informed they called forest officials who arrived at the scene armed with a cage and tranquiliser guns.

But they were unable to capture the leopard, which reportedly entered into the room to escape from wild dogs.

Mr Rathore, 31, said that he was woken up by the sound of shattering glass, reports the Times Of India.

He said: "To my horror, I felt something moving on my bed. It was then that I saw the leopard, which immediately ran inside the bathroom.

"Even though I was shocked and scared, I quickly jumped out of bed and locked the bathroom door."

His wife Shivani said that although she was terrified of the cat, she was also happy to see such a rare animal up close, according to the Hindustan Times.

By the time officials arrived at the scene a large crowd had gathered outside the hotel.

Eyewitnesses said the wild cat ran off towards a mosque being chased by street dogs, and others said it tried attacking the workers attempting to sedate it with a dart gun.

Nainital Divisional Forest Officer Tejasvini Arvind Patil, said the leopard most likely drifted into the town in a search for food.

"Perhaps it was chased by dogs, as a result of which it came to the hotel. Seeing its image reflected in the window, it probably mistook it for another leopard and attacked the reflection thus breaking the window and entering the room," he said.

Nainital is a prominent tourist spot in northern India. It is located in the Kumaon region and is sometimes referred to as the Lake District of India.