The search for rare incense wood, agar wood, in the dense forest area of Mount Leuser National Park, Indonesia has left one person dead and five men trapped up in the branches of a tree. A pack of Sumatran tigers chased the men up the branches of the tree, seeking revenge for the death of a tiger-cub.

Six Indonesian men were attacked by prowling Sumatran tigers after a tiger-cub was killed by them, accidently, according to news agency AFP. One of the men was mauled by the tigers and left half-eaten. Four tigers are still surrounding the base of the tree, making it difficult for the men, clinging on to the branches of the tree since Thursday, to escape, safely.

The rescue team may take till mid-week to reach the trapped men. The Daily Mail reports that the police has expressed their helplessness as they have little choice and the careful planning of the rescue operation would take time.

"We can't go rushing in to rescue the men in the tree because of the remoteness and because of the tigers still being there at the base of the tree," Dicky Sondani, police chief, told the local media.

The men entered the Mount Leuser National Park in the north of Sumatra Island on Tuesday searching for rare incense wood, Sondani told AFP. "The wood is very expensive ... but they run a risk looking for it as they have to go to more remote parts of Leuser where there are many tigers and elephants."

The men had set a trap to catch deer and antelopes for food. However, according to the report, the tiger-cub got caught and died. The men are currently at the mercy of the tigers. There are fears that the tired men may slip and fall or the tigers may climb the tree. In both the cases the result will be fatal.

Mount Leuser National Park is one of the world's largest national parks, spread in an area of 7, 927 square kilometres in Northern Sumatra of Indonesia. The park consists of over 800,000 hectares of virgin rainforest area and is home to tigers, elephants, monkeys, gibbons, orang-utans and Sumatran rhinoceros. The WWF Web site states that there are less than 400 Sumatran tigers in the wild and they are found exclusively on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the last stronghold for tigers in Indonesia. The Daily Mail reports that over100 Sumatran tigers are said to be in the forest area of the park.