Invasion of bears sparks panic among residents of Russian city with seven shot in two days

Residents in a Russian city are living in fear after an invasion of wild brown bears.

Seven of the animals have been shot in two days in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia, because they are seen as posing a direct threat to inhabitants. Across Kamchatka region, that has a population of around 180,000, 30 bears were recently eliminated for encroaching on residential areas.

Acting Mayor Yevgeny Belyayev said: "Our city has never faced bears wandering into town like this. It’s important to ensure the safety of the residents of the city, who are lucky enough to live side by side with wildlife.” Kamchatka - a volcano and glacier region in the extreme east of Russia - has a large bear population but the encroachment into villages, towns and cities is unprecedented.

Seven “rapid response” squads are working in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky conducting night patrols and using thermal imaging drones “to search for animals in the dark”, said the acting mayor, who has declared a “high alert”. The bears are roaming near schools, leading to fear and panic from children. One local said: "They started crawling out like cockroaches. The whole city is in fear.

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A resident said: “A friend's child went from the car to the entrance, but couldn't get the key into the door. He was hysterical. He was afraid that the bear would come for him.”

Some 450 cases have been recorded this year of bears encroaching on populated areas, a new high. Despite officials seeking to reassure locals, a woman said: “I drove around the district once. Not a single patrol. Not a single one. Where the **** are they patrolling?”

One video shows a half-ton bear running along a street ahead of a resident on a scooter. Another shows a beast approaching from the sea in Avacha Bay. A complainant called the bear hotline but was told: “Woman, don’t hold up the line. Hungry bears are everywhere now, we can’t do everything at once.”

A number of bear sightings in the city were reported today. Bear expert Valery Kuzenkov said the problem was worsened because of a failure to control the brown bear population in Russia. The bears are hungry due to a shortage in the wild, and searching for food. Officially the number of bears is 300,000 but he contends the true figure is far higher. He warned that Vladimir Putin’s regime was too lax in reducing the brown bear population.

“The only way out of the situation is to remove brown bears from the population, that is, shoot them. There are no other options,” Mr Kuzenkov said. “Zoos and zoological gardens are full. The smaller the population, the more food resources they will have, so they will sit in the taiga and not go out to people.”