A wild leopard was rescued from a well in India by villagers and forest officials after it fell in and could not get back out.

Footage filmed on May 31 in the Satpura Tiger Reserve in Madhya Prades, India, shows the crowd of villagers tentatively lowering the hastily-assembled ladder into the deep well.

The beast was spotted in the well by a villager who heard grunts and splashing.

After informing the forest department, IFS field director L Krishna Moorthy swung into action.

The ladder was assembled from Bamboo sticks and was around six metres (20 feet) in length.

The rescue took about 20 minutes in total.

Mobile phone footage shows the moment the leopard slowly ascends the ladder before darting off into the forest.

Leopard sightings have become more common in the area as drought pushes the big cats into contact with humans.

By Deepali Ravi Mishra and Dinesh Dubey