The man, who was picking mushrooms in a forest area near the village of Hybe, was accompanied by another person when the bear attacked, according to a police spokeswoman interviewed by Slovak media Sme on Saturday.
A rescue helicopter was able to locate the man seriously injured by the animal in a hilly area. A rescuer was lowered to him using a winch. “The bear, however, hit one of the main arteries in the man’s lower limbs, resulting in severe hemorrhaging and cardiac arrest,” the rescue report said. The victim died of his injuries at the scene.
Two polar bears kill an employee on a remote island
This is the second death caused by a bear in Slovakia in recent years. The last such incident dates back to 2021, also in the Liptov region, in the east of the country.
There are an estimated 1,300 brown bears in Slovakia. They mainly live in mountains or dense forests. Authorities recently authorized the killing of dozens of these ursids due to the fact that they no longer fear humans or that they had become a threat to the life, health and property of locals.
