This image from a video shows a monkey loitering around a home in Yamaguchi, Japan, Saturday, July 23, 2022. People in the southwestern Japanese city have come under attack from monkeys that are trying to snatch babies, biting and clawing at flesh, and sneaking into nursery schools.

TOKYO — People in a southwestern Japanese city have come under attack from monkeys that are trying to snatch babies, biting and clawing at flesh, and sneaking into nursery schools.

The attacks — on 58 people since July 8 — are getting so bad Yamaguchi city hall hired a special unit to hunt the animals with tranquilizer guns.

The monkeys aren’t interested in food, so traps haven’t worked. They have targeted mostly children and the elderly.

“They are so smart, and they tend to sneak up and attack from behind, often grabbing at your legs,” city official Masato Saito said.

When confronted by a monkey, the instructions are: Do not look them in the eye, make yourself look as big as possible, such as by spreading open your coat, then back away as quietly as possible without making sudden moves, according to Saito.

A woman was assaulted by a monkey while hanging laundry on her veranda. Another victim showed bandaged toes. They were taken aback and frightened by how big and fat the monkeys were.

The monkeys terrorizing the community are Japanese macaque, the kind often pictured peacefully bathing in hot springs.

One male monkey, measuring a 1-1/2 feet in height and weighing 15 pounds, was caught Tuesday, July 26, by the team with the tranquilizer gun. It was judged by various evidence to be one of the attacking monkeys and put to death.

But more attacks were reported after the capture.

No one has been seriously injured so far. But all have been advised to get hospital treatment. Ambulances were called in some cases.

Although Japan is industrialized and urban, a fair portion of land in the archipelago is mountains and forests. Rare attacks on people by a bear, boars or other wildlife have occurred, but generally not by monkeys.

No one seems to know why the attacks have occurred, and where exactly the troop of monkeys came from remains unclear.

“I have never seen anything like this my entire life,” Saito said.

Attorney wins Ernest Hemingway contest in Key West tradition

KEY WEST, Fla. — Some came in wool fisherman’s sweaters, and other contestants had sportsmen’s attire. But it was the cream-colored sweater of attorney Jon Auvil that caught the eye of judges who awarded him the title for most resembling author and former Key West resident Ernest Hemingway.

Auvil triumphed last month over 124 other contestants for the title in the annual Hemingway Look-Alike Contest at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, the Key West establishment where the author was a regular patron during his decade-long residence on the island in the 1930s.

The look-a-like contest is a highlight of Key West’s annual Hemingway Days celebration, which ended Sunday, July 24.

Auvil said he shares Hemingway’s passion for fishing, has written some fiction and would like to do more writing.

“Every man wants to write like Hemingway,” said Auvil, who lives in Dade City, Florida, northeast of Tampa.

While living in Key West, Hemingway wrote classics, including “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “To Have and Have Not.”