The wife of a leader of a major political party in India has fallen to her death while trying to escape a monkey attack.

Sushma Devi, 50, was rushed to hospital but sadly died of her injuries.

She is the wife of Anil Kumar Chauhan, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The incident took place on September 9 when she was attacked by aggressive monkeys on the terrace of her house in Kairana city.

To avoid the attack she jumped down from the terrace.

Feral monkeys have been causing havoc in the Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh in northern India, with local authorities cracking down.

Municipal commissioner Anunaya Jha for the city of Mathura said: ‘Monkeys would be caught from Bankey Bihari temple area Vrindavan, Chaubia para, and Dwarkadhish temple area of Mathura in the first phase of the program and they would be released in the forest areas.’

Local residents claim there has been daily monkey attacks on children too.

Sushma was also a politician and was a district panchayat member, which is a district council in India.

She has been cremated at Mayapur farm.

In November 2019, two attacks claimed the lives of a 12-day-old baby and a 58-year-old woman in the city of Agra.

During the first attack, monkeys broke into a woman’s home while she was breastfeeding her child snatched the baby from her, and bit it to death.

In the second attack, a 58-year-old woman was bitten by monkeys as she went to relieve herself outside her home on the outskirts of the city and bled to death.

Monkeys have also inadvertently caused deaths – in January last year a woman hanging washing on her roof died after monkeys attacked and she slipped and fell.