World Cup 2018: Bear videoed blowing vuvuzela while being driven around Moscow after Russia win

'If that bear went on a rampage, I wouldn't shed a tear'

Video footage of a bear blowing a vuvuzela while being driven around in a jeep after Russia's World Cup victory has provoked criticism from animal lovers.

The film, which has nearly 1m views, shows the trained circus animal sitting upright in the back of the vehicle with the horn clasped between its paws.

After the trumpet was taken away by his handler, the bear then appeared to make an offensive gesture with its arms.

World Cup fans from Peru and Mexico can be seen taking pictures as the car waited in traffic in Moscow.

Twitter users condemned the stunt as "cruel" and "disgusting" and speculated that the bear may have had its claws removed to prevent it causing serious injury.

One said: "If that bear went on a rampage, I wouldn't shed a tear."

Others delighted in the spectacle with a barrage of laughing emojis and one fan joked that it was the French player "Antoine Grizzlyman celebrating his new contract".

"My favourite part is when the guy snatches the vuvuzela away from him and he looks so disappointed," said another.

One Russian Twitter user objected to claims that the bear was performing the "quenelle", an antisemitic gesture, by saying that it was "a version of middle finger gesture" which can be translated as "up yours".

In April the same bear, known as Tim, was used to deliver a ball at a third division football match between Mashuk-KMV and Angusht.

Animal welfare charity PETA described that stunt as "humane and utterly out of touch", adding: "Bears are not willing performers, so Russian circuses and other lousy acts take from their mothers as babies and then train them using beating, electric shocks, cigarette burns, and food deprivation to make them perform belittling, stupid tricks, which make no sense to them."

The bear was also filmed riding in the sidecar of a motorcycle in Russia in September last year.

A Youtube video of the bear waving, playing a trumpet, sitting in a chair, dancing and hula hooping dates back to 2013.