Guests at a village wedding reacted in sheer panic when a tiger stepped in to join their celebrations.

Early guests had arrived and the cooks had begun to prepare the feast when the tiger was spotted.

The people at the spot scrambled to get to safety on the terrace of a house. Many of them screamed when they saw the full-grown male tiger stepping out of the bushes. A man chanted names of his favourite god to ward off the animal, while another shouted to check if the door had been shut downstairs.

Unmoved by the hysteria it had unleashed, the tiger ambled in calmly and walked right through the wedding avenue before making a peaceful exit and heading back to the forest.

The incident occurred at Masulkhapa, a village on the border of Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Forest officials of both states and staff of a local NGO Save Ecosystem And Tiger (SEAT) are keeping a close watch on the tiger, which has been frequenting villages in the area, even walking through their roads sometimes.

They believe that the tiger may have lost a territorial battle with a younger male at Bhandara forest range and become comfortable living close to human habitats.

The tiger has attacked a woman and killed a goat so far.

Shahid Pervez Khan of SEAT said the woman was lucky to survive the attack. “The behaviour of the tiger is unusual and it was found taking small bites out of the goat it had killed,” he said.

“The priority now is to monitor its movements and get a better understanding of the animal,” he added.