A four-month-old baby was killed in a freak accident when a monkey dropped a stone on top of him in India.

The boy was with his parents at their home in northern India when the animal picked up a stone on a terrace, authorities said.

According to police, the monkey fumbled the stone and dropped it on top of the boy, leaving him seriously injured.

The boy was taken to hospital where medics pronounced him dead, according to NDTV.

The fatal accident occurred on Saturday in Muzaffarnagar in India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh.

Monkeys are a frequent menace in the country and have been known to attack children as young as two weeks old.

In May this year a monkey killed a 60-year-old man and injured nine others after going on the rampage through a town in central India.

Last October a 12-day-old Indian boy was snatched from his mother and killed by a monkey on the outskirts of Agra.

A few months earlier, a group of monkeys had attacked two foreign tourists at India’s famous Taj Mahal.

The monkeys have been known to forage for food around the entrance to the monument, where visitors’ bags are scanned and food sometimes thrown away.

Earlier this year police began using slingshots to take aim at the monkeys, hoping they would be scared off merely by the sight of them.