Rampaging bear shot dead after injuring five people including 10 year-old girl

A 10-year-old girl was among the five injured after the bear pounded through the city

A rampaging bear that injured five people in a town in Slovakia has been shot dead.

The bear was captured in a viral video as it charged through the streets of Liptovskom Mikuláši on 17 March.

Ten days later, the bear was shot dead in a local forest on Tuesday.

The country’s environment minister, Tomáš Toraba, said a biometrics drone was used to identify the mammal.

In a post he wrote in a post on Facebook thanking those involved in the operation, he said: “A bear which injured 5 people in Liptovské Mikuláš was successfully shot down yesterday at 21:50. A biometrics drone was used to identify him.”

Among the injured in the latest attack are a 49-year-old woman, who was being treated in hospital for a shoulder injury, and a 72-year-old man who suffered a cut on his head.

A 10-year-old girl and two further adults suffered scratches and bruises, authorities said, while a couple pushing their child in a buggy were “lucky to escape unharmed”.

Authorities had declared a state of emergency on 17 March in the town, with heightened police patrols were put in place in 16 districts across the region to prevent similar attacks.

The country’s Department of Communication and Promotion of the State Nature Protection said the bear was a three-year-old female weighing almost 70kg.

A rampaging bear that injured five people in a town in Slovakia has been shot dead (Independent TV)

Viktória Čapčíková, a spokeswoman for the city, said the bear attacked people on the streets before moving to a nearby shopping centre.

The bear then crossed the road where she injured other people before swimming across the river, at which point the rescue and security forces were able to push the bear into the forest.

The government now wants to introduce a constitutional law to prevent the issue from recurring.

This involves calling for the bear’s endangered species status to be relaxed so that they can be culled and hunted.

Following the bear’s rampage, junior environment minister, Filip Kuffa, outlined a draft law to allow bears to be shot outside urban areas under certain conditions. Along with Romania, the Slovakian ministry aims to propose a reclassification of the species at the European Union level.