Man Dies After Being Hit With Brick Thrown by Monkey

A man in India died earlier this month after being hit by a brick thrown by a monkey, The Indian Express reported. Sadly, this is not the first time a person has died at the hands of one of the many primates wandering the country.

According to the outlet, the incident occurred on October 5 in Central Delhi's Nabi Karim area. Mohammad Kurbaan, 30, was out shopping for materials to make bags when a brick hit him on the head.

He sustained a "severe injury and collapsed" and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the outlet continued.

Vice previously reported that more than 50 million monkeys live in India, and they are rather aggressive.

Since 2015, at least 13 people in the country have been killed by monkeys, and "more than 1,000 cases of monkey bites are reported every day in Indian cities," the publication reported.

Back in September, an autorickshaw driver named Jagadish B B was attacked by a five-year-old Bonnet Macaque near the Indian city of Chikmagalur, Newsweek reported. Officials eventually detained and removed the monkey; however, it found its way back to the village.

Forest officials again detained and moved the monkey to a forest farther away.

Though monkey-human conflict is now a regular occurrence throughout India, one expert said that it hasn't always been this way.

Dr. Iqbal Malik, primatologist, told Vice that monkey-human conflict in India can be traced back to the '80s. "Before that, humans and primates peacefully co-existed without such conflicts," he said.

He added that "[l]ack of population control of both humans and monkeys, depletion of forest areas which could have been habitats for monkeys, and shift to monoculture farming," are some of the driving factors behind the increased aggression in India's monkey population.

Shortly after Kurbaan's death, police launched an investigation into the incident.

Authorities quickly discovered that the monkey threw the brick from someone's home. The homeowner was identified as Omprakash Mishra, said India Today.

Mishra reportedly told police that he set two bricks on top of the water tank to prevent monkeys from opening it.

Of course, the monkeys did remove the bricks. The one that hit Kurbaan was thrown from the home's second floor, and the other was thrown onto a nearby terrace, India Today explained.

The police have filed a first information report against an unnamed individual "under sections of causing death by negligence," said The Indian Express.