Photo: Photo: Marking its territory? Leopard stalks Indian city, injuring 7

(CNN) -- The northern Indian city of Meerut was both panicked and intrigued by a leopard on the loose on Sunday, which has eluded captors since.

The big cat was found in a local timber shop before being cornered in a nearby hospital, local forest official Sushant Sharma told CNN on Tuesday.

Animal control experts were called to tranquilize the animal, which made a daring escape, breaking a window in the room to make its getaway. After breaking out of the hospital it "snuck" into a cinema and later also entered an apartment block.

The big cat looks out at a baton-wielding official from a hole in the Meerut Cantonment Hospital wall

Stunning photographs purport to show the leopard leaping across rooftops, squeezing through a hole in the wall of the Meerut Cantonment Hospital, and snarling at a baton-wielding official through a window.

Crowds complicate capture efforts

The cat sparked more inquisitiveness than trepidation as onlookers crowded around the site of the cat's incarceration, hampering efforts by the authorities to capture and release the leopard. "It got agitated and escaped," Sharma said.

But curiosity got the better of some in the crowd. Seven, including a policeman who needed treatment for a gash on the shoulder, were injured by the leopard.

No sightings were confirmed on Monday and Sushant did not rule out the possibility of the leopard having retreated into the forests.

"Nothing happened (Monday). So, there are chances it could have gone back to the forests. But we are still trying to track it," Sharma said.