A wild monkey that allegedly killed a resident's pet cat was captured in Thailand.

Local authorities hunted the macaque following a report from a grieving pet owner who told them it attacked the moggy in his home with its troop in Phichit province.

It allegedly raided the property for food and came across the cat on the rooftop as they fled and was already dead when found by the man.

Footage shows officers searching for the rogue primate. They found it in a mango tree at the back of a mall, and they caught it with a tranquiliser gun.

The cat's owner said: ‘I found monkey fur all over my pet's body and paws. It might have fought with the monkey when they entered my home.'

A neighbour, Manart, said:' I am sure it was the one. When it was hungry, it would sneak into my office at night to pick a mango.'

A nearby fruit vendor, Nok, said she saw the monkey, but it never stole from her when there were people around.

She said: ‘It never caused trouble so far. I feel bad for the cat, and most of us felt unsafe after hearing what happened.'

The team from the Protected Areas Regional Office later caught the monkey.

An officer said: ‘The operation was difficult because it lived on top of a water tank of a mall's storage warehouse. We could not climb because of its height.'

When the monkey was hungry, the officers found a chance to snipe it with the sedative as it climbed down to find food.

Thailand's growing population of primates has become a problem. The animals are known to damage property, such as cars and buildings. Unafraid of the consequences, they have also started stealing food from tourists and locals.

Many provincial governments in Thailand have been lobbying for the removal of crab-eating macaques from the country's list of protected wildlife. The legal protections have been hampering efforts to curb the pillaging simians' ballooning numbers.

Meanwhile, the Thai government is taking steps to manage the monkey population in the country, including creating sanctuaries and mass sterilisation programs, educating the public on how to handle the animals properly, and relocating them to more suitable habitats.