A brown bear who rampaged through a town in Slovakia injuring five people has been shot dead, the country’s environment minister has said.
The animal went viral after running through the streets of Liptovsky Mikulas earlier this month.
A state of emergency was declared across the region, with a 10-year-old girl among those injured.
It was the second attack in Slovakia in three days after a 31-year-old Belarussian woman was found dead following another brown bear sighting nearby.The bear was shot at around 9.50pm on Tuesday after a drone was used to identify him, Slovakian Environment Minister Tomas Taraba posted on Facebook.
The animal was thought to be three years old and weighing around 70kg, according to a local news agency.
One video showed the bear swiping at a man on the pavement while other footage showed it running past a car.
A third clip showed it bounded down a road in the Slovakian town.
The BBC reports that members of Slavakia’s populist, nationalist government said the incident showed the need to loosen EU environmental protections on wildlife that prevent animals like bears and wolves from being hunted.
Slovak National Party MP Rudolf Huliak said: “This is a case where a bear has brutally attacked people. One person almost lost an eye."
Mr Huliak called for "a firm solution to the excessive number of bears".
Slovakia and Romania plan to appeal to EU colleagues to reclassify bears to allow selective culling.
Bears have returned to their natural habitats across the Carpathian mountain range since the fall of communism in 1989 brought in better environmental protections.
Researchers believe Slovakia’s bear population has remained stable at around 1,275.
