Bear shot dead in Japan after 8-hour rampage that left 4 injured
A wild bear that created chaos for eight hours in Japan on Friday, including injuring four people at a military base, has been shot dead.
Hokkaido police let locals know via Twitter early Friday that a search was underway after an officer said he’d “witnessed a bear” in Sapporo, located in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
“Since then, there have been multiple sightings and some have been injured,” the tweet continued, according to a translation. “If you find a bear, be careful to evacuate immediately and call 110.”
The brown bear was seen near residential homes, climbing a barbed-wire fence, and interrupting traffic with police after it, NBC News reports.
The animal invaded one of the city’s self-defense force military barracks, during which it injured at least four people, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Katsunobu Kato, confirmed during a news conference, according to NBC.
Flights were reportedly halted for a short time and schools closed, the country’s public broadcaster NHK reports, according to NBC.
The country’s Defense Ministry said that at the barracks, the bear pushed down a soldier who sustained non-life threatening cuts to his chest and stomach, according to the outlet.
Hokkaido prefectural police said the bear also injured two men, one in his 70s and one in his 40s, and a woman in her 80s, but did not know their conditions, NBC reports.
The animal then entered a forest, where a local hunting association working with the police fatally shot it, according to NBC.
