The 31-year-old tourist from Belarus fell from a great height down a slope and sustained fatal head injuries, a police spokeswoman said on Saturday, according to the TASR agency. This was determined by a forensic pathologist.
The woman’s companion ran in a different direction following the encounter with the brown bear early on Friday evening and was uninjured. The man alerted the emergency services. It was initially thought that the brown bear may have attacked the woman directly. When the mountain rescue service arrived, the wild animal was still in the immediate vicinity, according to the emergency services. “Fortunately, the bear was able to be driven away with the help of a service dog, screams and a warning shot from a police officer,” said a spokesman.
The accident occurred in the Demänovska Dolina valley near the Jasna winter sports center in the Low Tatras, a mountain range in the Carpathians. A bear response team from the State Nature Conservation Unit (SOPSR) was on its way there to investigate the incident.
According to studies by the State Nature Conservation Agency in collaboration with scientists from Charles University in Prague, there are around 1,100 to 1,200 wild bears in Slovakia. They usually avoid people if they notice them in time. If there is a surprise encounter or if female bears believe their cubs are threatened, they can also attack. In the current case it was still unclear whether it was a male or a female animal.
