A polar bear attacked and killed two people in western Alaska. According to initial reports, the animal initially chased several people in the Wales town and then fatally wounded a woman and a young man, police said in a statement yesterday. A resident finally shot the bear.
More details are not known. Police officers and officials want to travel to the area on the west coast of the US state “as soon as weather conditions permit”, she said.
According to the newspaper “Anchorage Daily News”, such attacks are extremely rare in the US state. In 1990, a polar bear killed a man in the town of Point Lay, about 500 kilometers north of Wales. In 1993, an animal broke through a window at an Air Force radar station and seriously injured a 55-year-old man.
Due to melting sea ice during the climate crisis, animals are increasingly staying on the continent, making human encounters more likely.