14 BEARS lay siege to Russian village in summer of ‘unprecedented’ attacks on humans as they scavenge for food
- A pack of the wild animals has been seen scavenging for food near Takhtoyamsk
- Locals are facing daily warnings that the wild animals could attack suddenly
- Across Russia there have been a series of attacks on humans during the summer
A Russian village is under siege from 14 brown bears in a summer of ‘unprecedented’ attacks on humans in the country.
A pack of the wild animals has been seen scavenging for food near remote Takhtoyamsk on the Sea of Okhotsk in far eastern Russia.
Locals are facing daily warnings from Russian officials who say the bears, who are devouring waste from fish processing, can attack suddenly.
The 289 residents in Takhtoyamsk – a fishing and reindeer village – have been have been warned to take extreme care in moving around for fear of the wild animals.
Russians have faced a series of bear attacks in recent months, including in neighbouring Kamchatka region where some 62 brown bears have been shot for threatening humans.
Bears such as this one, which wandered into the city centre in Magadan, have been terrorising Russians during the summer, prompting warnings of sudden attacks
A pack of bears (pictured) has been seen scavenging for food near remote Takhtoyamsk on the Sea of Okhotsk in far eastern Russia
Officials have warned of terrifying attacks if the animals can access waste food dumps.
One of the bears has been seen casually walking in the centre of regional capital Magadan.
‘Even the old-timers do not remember bears walking right into the centre of the city,’ said Vadim Uzhvenko ,from campaign Animal Welfare.
‘This is an extraordinary situation.’
In the past week alone there have been fatal attacks in Kamchatka and Khabarovsk regions in the Russian far east.
Two bears were found with the remains of a 41-year-old man in their stomach in Kamatchatka, while in Khabarovsk 66-year-old Alexander Korneyev was eaten alive as he was picking mushrooms.
Another young woman was badly bitten on her neck by a cub in the country’s most easterly region of Chukotka, before a male friend stabbed the bear in the eye to scare it away.
‘The young woman wore two hoodies which is what saved her life as her neck got very nearly bitten through,’ said Dr Natalya Vlasova who treated the victim at Ust-Belaya hospital.
A bear is seen wandering the streets of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky – and escaped without being caught
Locals are facing daily warnings from Russian officials who say the bears, who are devouring waste from fish processing, can attack suddenly
In another two recent cases, bears have terrorised mourners at graveyards.
In one case, a beast in Komsomolsk-on-Amur region dug into a grave and stole the recently buried corpse of a man.
The bear was found and shot, but the body has not been found.
Kamchatka governor Vladimir Ilyukhin defended his decision to approve the shooting of 62 bears.
‘Of course if human life is in danger, all necessary measures are taken in order to scare the beast away from the settlement or to kill him,’ he said.
But one bear was seen on video parading at night through the the downtown area of the main city in the governor’s region, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky – and escaping without being caught.
Reports in several Russian regions have said they have never witnessed so many bears encroaching on settlements and attacking people.
One reason is feared to be uncontrolled wildfires destroying the bears’ natural habitat over tens of thousands of square miles in eastern Russia.