COLOMBO, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Department of Wildlife Conservation on Saturday said they had temporarily closed part of a national park, located in the southeast of the island country following a leopard attack which killed 1 man and severely injured another.

Local media reports quoted the Director General of the Department of Wildlife Conservation, M.G.C Sooriyabandara as saying that they had decided to temporarily close off the area at the Kumana National Park demarcated for leopard sightings for tourists after a leopard attacked a group of construction workers on Thursday evening.

Police said the leopard had attacked the workers when they were resting under a tree after attending to a road construction. The leopard had dragged away one of the workers into the jungle while another worker had sustained serious injuries.

Sooriyabandara said that a rescue team had been dispatched into the jungle and had recovered the body of the victim on Friday.

Manager of the Kumana National Park, Sisira Kumara Ratnayake said entry into the area of the park where the attack took place was temporarily closed for visitors but the rest of the park was open to tourists.

Sri Lanka's Kumana National Park is home to some of the world's rare animal species.