Remarkable CCTV footage has emerged showing the moment a wild leopard entered a residential area in Sri Lanka to pounce on a pet dog.

Images filmed from a shop's security camera on February 9 in the Nuwara Eliya district show the big cat dash out of a tea plantation and seize the sleeping dog.

Another dog raises the alarm but the big cat drags its prey back to the tea estate.

Wild leopards in the area often stay onto the streets to look for food and regularly prey on domestic animals.

A leopard was spotted attacking a dog in Sri Lanka's Central Province on February 9. The incident took place on the streets of Hatton, located in the Nuwara Eliya district.

Visuals witnessing the incident feature a few shops located adjacent to a dimly lit street.

Within a few moments, a big cat runs onto the road from a tea estate and grabs a dog resting outside the shops. Upon noticing the leopard, another dog rushes to the spot, but the wild cat grasps the former domestic animal with its jaw and drags it back to the tea estate.

Panic ensued among the villagers when their dogs started mysteriously disappearing at night. However, it was only after the last dog in the region went missing that the locals decided to check the CCTV footage, which revealed the real culprit.

The tea estates in the region are known for housing wild leopards. The big cats often stray onto the streets to look for subsistence and prey on domestic animals.