MOSCOW — A pack of enormous bears searching for food killed and ate two men at mines in Russia’s Pacific Kamchatka region and have kept hundreds of geologists and miners from reaching the mine, news agencies reported Wednesday.
A pack of up to 30 Kamchatka bears — which are similar to grizzlies — prowled around two mines of a local platinum- mining company where they killed the two guards a week ago, local officials were quoted by the Russian ITAR-Tass news agency as saying.
About 400 company workers have refused to return to the mines for fear of the bears, which stand 10 feet tall and weigh up to 1,500 pounds, Interfax reported.
Rampant fish poaching in the Kamchatka tundra often forces the bears to seek other sources of food, such as garbage. Bears frequently attack humans in the scarcely populated peninsula region.
Attack in California
In Southern California, a woman walking her two dogs in a rural area was attacked and severely injured by a bear, but she managed to escape and drive herself to a nearby fire station.
The woman suffered severe lacerations to her face and head in Tuesday’s attack and was flown to UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, said county fire spokesman Sean Collins. Her condition was not known.
“For her to be attacked in that manner and drive to a fire station, she must have been running on pure adrenaline,” Collins said.
The woman, whose name was not immediately released, was taking her dogs on a morning walk when the bear attacked near the tiny community of Caliente, east of Bakersfield and about 5 miles away from an area that burned in a recent wildfire, Collins said.
Her dogs also escaped the attack, but one suffered minor injuries, he said.
