Bear Killed After Attacking 4 In Hokkaido
A bear has been shot dead after being spotted in a commercial and residential area in the city of Sapporo in Hokkaido, northern Japan, on Friday. Police say the bear attacked and injured four people.
A local resident told police around 3:30 a.m. that a bear was running south on a street in the city's Higashi district.
The police say they received more than 30 reports of bear sightings in the neighborhood by 10 a.m.
They say the bear attacked a man in his 70s and a woman in her 80s about one kilometer south of where it was first spotted. The two were slightly injured.
The police also say two men in their 40s were also attacked separately, and that one of them suffered broken ribs.
The bear moved around a 2-kilometer-radius area for nearly 8 hours as police chased the animal.
Shortly after 11 a.m., hunters shot and killed the bear when it was in a bush near an airport in the district.
The male bear was about 1.6 meters long and weighed about 158 kilograms.
The incident caused school closures and cancellations of eight flights at the airport.
Sapporo officials say this is the first time in 20 years that a bear attack in the city has resulted in injuries.