A tourist suffered serious injuries after being violently mauled by a wild bear in Romania's Carpathian mountains. Georgi Bizhev, a 46-year-old Bulgarian holidaymaker, was driving along a mountain road near the Vidraru Dam in central Romania last Wednesday when he decided to stop after spotting a mother bear and her cub.
Attack Details
Bizhev tossed food scraps at the animals and began taking pictures and videos. The mother bear suddenly launched a ferocious attack, lunging into Bizhev's car window. Footage shows the bear clawing at the tourist as he screamed for help. The animal smashed a window and tried to drag him out of the vehicle, according to local reports.
Bizhev suffered serious bite wounds to his left arm. He said the bear clawed and bit him as he raised his arm to shield his face and neck. A seatbelt helped save him from worse injury as other drivers honked and shouted to scare the aggressive animal away.
Victim's Account
Bizhev later said: 'I saw the bear's ears prick up and it jumped at me. It tried to grab me and pull me out of the car.' Romanian emergency services responded after Bizhev alerted guards at the dam. Officials stressed that the mother bear was likely protecting her cub.
The stretch of road is a famous 'bear pass' where tourists frequently stop to observe and feed wildlife. Bizhev, a sports official and former football club president, said such encounters are commonplace, with food sold at stops, although he acknowledged feeding bears is inappropriate. He admitted: 'I entered its environment, it was a mistake for which I paid.' He has since returned to Bulgaria for further treatment.
Authorities' Warning
Local authorities have urged tourists not to approach or feed bears, which are protected but increasingly habituated to humans in the Carpathians.
Related Incident in Japan
The bear attack comes as a bear injured four people in a Japanese residential area earlier this week. Police and fire department officials rushed to the Sasakino district of Fukushima in northeastern Japan on Tuesday after receiving an emergency call from the Fukushima Steel Works reporting bear attacks on two employees. Security camera footage shows a black bear chasing an employee near the entrance, throwing him to the ground. It then injured a second male employee in his 60s. The bear later injured a third person, a male employee in his 60s at a separate company. A woman in her 80s who lives in the neighbourhood was also attacked and injured, the Fukushima City Fire Department said.
