LUNATIC CREATES PANIC, HARASSES WOMEN AND KIDS

An unidentified youth in his 20s, is striking panic among the households at isolated localities in Tirupati since a couple of months, pelting stones at women, children and aged, apart from occasionally assaulting them.

The youth, in tattered clothes and worn out beard behaves like a lunatic. He makes his prowl in isolated colonies of Kapilatheertham junction, along the Tirumala bypass road. He makes sudden appearance in the mornings when children are about to go to school and while housewives are returning home after leaving their kids at schools. He terrorises them by lurking behind tree trunks or dustbins, making strange noises, pelting stones at them.

When the irate public try to catch hold of him, he would slink away mysteriously, disappearing for the next few days, again to strike unnoticed. He would scare girls and boys returning from evening classes and coaching centers.

A couple of days ago, he attacked two women at Ramachandra Nagar colony, pounding one, while another fled in panic. The neighborhood tried to chase him, but he disappeared.

Though the matter was brought to the notice of the beat cops at night, they found no time to trace the youth, who remains active at daylight, while taking shelter among bushes and even in dustbins at night.

Public is worried that in recent days, the man is pelting stones, threatening the safety of the children.

Interestingly, he befriended street dogs who do not bark at him making him difficult to trace.