Hilla, Iraq: A five-year-old Iraqi boy was pounced upon and killed by a wolf as he picked dates in a palm grove near the town of Hilla in central Iraq, a witness and a doctor said on Monday.

Abbas Mohammad was busy picking dates on Sunday with five older boys in the village of Al Ahmer when the animal attacked them. All except Mohammad managed to flee.

“The wolf attacked the boy, lunging at his neck,” witness Kadum Mohammad, 20, said, adding that it was the first time such an attack had occurred in the area.

Dr Mohammad Jasem, from the hospital in Hilla, 100km south of Baghdad, confirmed receiving the boy’s body. Jasem said the child’s abdomen had been completely torn open by the wild animal.