Woman walking with male companion dies after being chased down by bear in Slovakia
A woman from Belarus died in Slovakia Friday after being chased by a bear through dense forest and mountainous terrain, officials said.
The 31-year-old was walking with a companion, identified as a 29-year-old man from Belarus, through a portion of the Low Tatras mountain range on Friday evening when they encountered the bear and each ran in opposite directions, according to the Slovakian Mountain Rescue Service.
After the pair were separated, the bear chased the woman until she disappeared from the man's view, he later told Slovakian rescuers. At that point he could not hear her either, the man said.
A team of rescuers and their service dog searched the area for signs of the couple after receiving an initial report describing their encounter with the bear. The search involved police officers, a brown bear response specialist and members of an avalanche prevention crew, who used thermal imaging drones to survey the area.
They found the woman unresponsive below a deep ravine, which, officials say, she fell down while the bear was chasing her. The bear was spotted near the woman's body, but crews were able to scare it off with a warning shot and help from the service dog. Rescuers also found her companion close by, who was not "scared but unhurt."
The woman's body was eventually recovered and transported by land to Lúčky, a village north of the Low Tatras. The rescue service said an investigation is underway to determine the official cause of her death and learn more about the circumstances surrounding it.
Just one day later, a Slovakian brown bear left a 49-year-old woman and a 72-year-old man with significant injuries in the nearby town of Liptovský Mikuláš, the BBC reported. Videos posted on social media showed the massive bear running down a road, and in one, lunging at a man on the pavement, the outlet reported.
The incidents are part of a marked rise in bear attacks in the region in recent years, including a fatal attack in Slovakia in 2021 that the country said was its first in more than a century, according to the BBC.
Slovakia's Low Tatras range is part of the broader Carpathian mountains, which are spread across central and eastern Europe and are a known habitat for brown bears. Wildlife researchers estimated about a decade ago that the brown bear population in Slovakia alone stood at around 1,250 and was continuing to grow — making the concentration of Slovakian bears second only to Romania in terms of prevalence.