The leopard lingering at the construction site in Hunchun city, Jilin, on June 25 [Photo/ybnews.cn]

A crane operator at a construction site of the suburbs of Hunchun, a border city in Jilin province, Wang Yin, encountered a leopard near the site, on June 25, and tried every way to drive the animal away with coworkers but couldn't do it, until the police arrived.

Wang said that they used their tools and threw stones at the leopard, but to no avail and that it just looked at them for an hour. When the police arrived, they told the workers who had decided to set off fireworks, to stop because they were forbidden in the area, and, in any case the leopard disappeared as soon as it saw the police.

The city has a nature reserve for Siberian tigers that sent its own staff to inspect the site and discovered that the leopard was just trying to protect its children. The city was known for its wild tigers and leopards, and now, after years of animal preservation work, is seeing an increasing number of Siberian tigers, leopards and other rare species.

After this incident, its public security department arranged a seminar to inform workers in the area about security rules and ways to defend themselves in facing case of an animal attack and how to protect endangered species.