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Slovak brown bear (icon image)
Photo: Jakub Mrocek / PantherMedia / IMAGO
In a Slovakian tourist area, a brown bear attacked and injured a mountain rescue worker.
As the mountain rescue service HZS announced on its website on Wednesday evening, the man near the town of Donovaly was alone on his way back from work when the bear attacked him on a hiking trail.
The mountain rescuer climbed a tree to save himself from the animal.
From there, he used his cell phone to alert his colleagues who were approaching with a service dog.
The helpers first treated their comrade's head injuries on site and then took the man to the hospital.
It is already the fourth bear attack within a few days in which a person was injured in central Slovakia:
On Friday evening, a bear accompanied by a cub seriously injured a man who was walking a hiking trail from his home in Horna Ves to work in a neighboring village.
A few hours earlier, a forest worker had been injured by a bear near the village of Ocova.
On Monday in Poruba, Prievidza district, an elderly walker was injured by a bear bite and had to be taken to hospital.
The state nature conservation called on the population to be more vigilant when hiking.
Around a hundred participants in a rally in front of the nature conservation center in the regional capital, Banska Bystrica, called for more bears to be shot down.
According to the last official census of the state nature conservation in 2016, there are more than 1200 free-living bears in Slovakia.
jpz/dpa