A skier has a lucky escape after he was chased by a brown bear at a resort in the Romanian mountains.
The encounter was captured by a man riding a chairlift at a Romanian skiing resort.
David Creta posted a video to YouTube showing the bear chasing the skier on a slope at the popular Predeal ski resort on Saturday.
Chairlift riders yelled out to the skier, who later threw his backpack on the ground, which succeeded in distracting the bear for long enough to allow the man to escape.
“Go faster, faster! The bear is chasing you. Don’t look behind you!” riders shouted and whooped in excitement.
The bear can be seen bounding across the snow in the video, going much faster than the skier. Bears can reach a speed of 60 to 70 kilometers an hour.
The slope was closed to skiers at the time, authorities said.
Police spokesman Ion Zaharia told Digi24 that the skier did the right thing by distracting the bear. He said three emergency calls came in about the bear being spotted in various locations at the resort Saturday.
The spokesman said the bear fled into the woods when police arrived in all-terrain vehicles. Authorities are considering having the bear relocated to avoid future confrontations on the slopes.
Romania is home to an estimated 6,000 brown bears. Bear hunting was banned in 2016, a move praise by environmental groups and animal rights activists.
However, farmers in central Romania say bears are responsible for attacks on livestock and hunting should be allowed.
Most bears are in the Transylvania region. They sometimes descend onto farms, villages and towns in search of food, including from rubbish bins and containers, or be fed by curious tourists.
