This is the dramatic moment a very angry leopard was hauled from the bottom of a village well in southern India on Friday.

The big cat is thought to have fallen into the water source as it tried to flee the village in Udupi District with a dog in its mouth.

Villagers were woken in the middle of the night by the sound of a dog barking from the bottom of the well.

When they got to the well, they found the dog and the leopard both stuck 15-20 feet below.

Realising the leopard must have dropped the dog as it fell into the water source, villagers lost no time in pulling the canine to safety with the help of a rope and a basket.

Forest Department staff arrived at around 9am local time to attempt the much more dangerous task of rescuing the leopard, which was by now distressed and angry.

They lowered a cage into the well with four ropes and eventually managed to goad the snarling cat inside.

The cage was then slowly raised from the well.

The entire rescue operation took around 90 minutes.

"It was a male leopard about five or six years old. It was very healthy,” said Sharath Shetty from the Forest Department.

The leopard will be relocated.