A Russian man said to be suffering from diabetes and poor blood clotting reportedly died of blood loss after being scratched on the leg by his pet cat.

According to reports, Dmitry Ukhin, a 55-year-old resident from the Kirishi district in Russia’s Leningrad region, was the unusual casualty after going into going search of his missing feline companion.

It’s understood that the cat, which was known to wander unbothered around the neighbourhood, became aggressive and scratched its owner during his attempted pick-up, much to the surprise of fellow neighbours.

Its further reported that the seemingly harmless nip- proved to be the catalyst for a more severe consequence as Ukhin reached out to his next-door neighbour for help later that night, sharing that he was bleeding profusely from the area on his leg where he got scratched.

Attempts to stop or slow the bleeding until the arrival of emergency services proved futile, with the authorities only able to confirm his passing.

“Around 11 p.m., a man called 112 to report that his friend was bleeding from his leg due to a torn vein. The doctors who arrived only confirmed the man’s death, which the police received a telephone message about,” a police spokesperson told Kosomolskaya Pravda, adding that “there was definitely no crime there.”

An investigation into Ukhin’s bizarre death was launched to explain the attack and how the cat was able to scratch deeply enough to sever a vein or an artery.