Animal was shot dead

Drama on a hike: bear kills young tourist

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

The cute sight of brown bears often delights hikers in Romania's Carpathian Mountains, one of the most important habitats for these animals in Europe. But now there has been a fatal attack there.

A 19-year-old woman died in a bear attack. The young tourist was dragged away by the wild animal while hiking in the Bucegi massif south of Brasov, as reported by an eyewitness who then made an emergency call. This was reported by the Romanian news agency Mediafax.

Bear was shot dead
Less than an hour later, mountain rescuers and police recovered the woman's body on Tuesday evening. They shot the bear because it had also tried to attack the rescuers.

8000 brown bears in the Carpathians
According to government estimates, around 8,000 brown bears live in Romania's Carpathian Mountains. It is the second largest bear population in Europe, after the one in Russia. They repeatedly attack hikers, invade farms and rummage through garbage cans in cities such as Brasov in search of food.

Minister calls for higher shooting quotas
Following the latest death, Romania's Environment Minister Mircea Fechet called for higher shooting quotas for bears. As minister, he had demanded an annual quota of 500 animals, but after consultation with other institutions, this figure was reduced to 220.

Among other things, aggressive bears are repeatedly brought to other regions of Romania by the authorities. Minister Fechet told the radio station "Antena3 CNN" that this method was useless. It only leads to "shifting the problem from one county to another".