ISLAMABAD: Terror gripped the Prime Minister’s House on Friday when a leopard was spotted in the green area of the palatial building.

There were conflicting reports about the size of the animal. An official of the PM House insisted that it was a ‘wild cat’ and not a leopard.

Other officials said they believed it was a grown-up healthy leopard which wandered from the Margalla Hills and sneaked into the PM House sometime late on Thursday night to prey on pet deer kept in the grounds of the building.

‘The animal’s movement was caught by the CCTV camera focused on the inner lawn,’ an official of the Capital Development Authority deputed to the PM House told Dawn.

According to a senior official of the PM House, a security guard said he had seen the animal, but it was not spotted afterwards. ‘True, the guard said he saw a leopard, but it could have been something else,’ he added.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani did not stay at the building on Friday night. He left for Lahore in the evening after a day-long visit to IDP camps in Mardan.

CDA’s director zoo Raja Javed said: ‘We have seen a wild cat on the camera roaming around the green. It is not a very significant story to tell.’

He dismissed the intrusion of wild cats into the PM House as a regular feature. Another official said that CDA’s zoo staff had installed two nets in the green area to catch the animal.

The Margalla Hills has flourishing flora and fauna with the presence of leopards, monkeys, jackals, wild boars and foxes. Leopards have been seen many times in residential areas close to the hills.