A 31-year-old woman from Belarus has died after being chased by a bear in Slovakia’s Low Tatras mountain range.
The woman was walking with a 29-year-old man when the couple came across the bear on Friday evening.
The pair ran in opposite directions, and the man lost sight of the woman as she was chased by the bear, Slovak Mountain Rescue Service said.
Rescuers with a dog and thermal imaging drones and a member of the Brown Bear Response Team immediately started scouring the area after mountain rescue was alerted.
The woman’s body was discovered by a search dog at the bottom of a steep ravine.
It is unclear how the woman died, whether she was killed by the bear or the fall.
An investigation has been launched into the cause and circumstances of her death.
Members of the Slovak Mountain Rescue Service. Pic: Slovak Mountain Rescue Service
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The bear was still nearby when the body was found, and was scared off by the dog, shouts, and a warning gun shot.
The man was found “scared but unhurt” at the top of the ravine.
The woman’s body was recovered from the forest and taken to the nearby village of Lucky.
Bears are common in Slovak mountains. In 2021, a man was killed by a bear in central Slovakia, with local media calling it the first fatal attack in more than a century.
