A teen girl died after being attacked by a bear during a hiking trip in Romania. Maria Diana, a 19-year-old, was hiking in the Bucegi mountains near Brasov in central Romania on Tuesday when a bear attacked her in front of her shocked boyfriend.
Tragically, the rabid bear dragged Diana and threw her down a 400ft cliff while she was on the phone calling emergency services and desperately asking for help after the attack took place. According to the victim's boyfriend, the bear first grabbed the teen's leg and dragged her off the path before throwing her 400ft down a cliff. Rescuers said that Diana's injuries were "incompatible with life."
Tragic Death
Local officials revealed that 'terrified' Maria managed to contact emergency services while being chased. Dan Banu, head of the local mountain rescue service, told the media: "She was terrified... you could hear it in her voice, she was screaming: 'The bear is getting closer and closer!'"
"It was all happening live, the [emergency] dispatcher was on the phone and [her partner] was shouting that they were being attacked by the bear and that he had taken the girl. It was terrible!"
"He told us that the bear grabbed the girl by the leg and at one point he didn't see what he did to her."
When rescuers arrived to recover Diana's body, they found the bear circling it.
The bear was shot and killed.
Diana's boyfriend, who was not injured, said they were hiking toward the Spumoasa waterfall when the bear emerged.
Upon reaching the scene, rescuers found the snarling animal circling the body. The "aggressive" predator tried to attack them and was subsequently shot dead.
The victim's boyfriend, whose identity remains unknown, witnessed the horrific attack but was unharmed.
Unexpected Attack
"It was unexpected. I tried to scare the bear, but the misfortune happened. I'd rather it had been me," Diana's boyfriend told Stirile Pro TV.
President of Salvamont Romania, the country's mountain rescue services, Sabin Corniou said: "From the information we have, the bear attacked the young woman on the trail, dragged her into the vegetation next to the trail, and somewhere in this vegetation dropped her into a chasm and fell there. The bear came down after her."
"My colleagues went down into the abyss, where unfortunately, the injuries the victim had were incompatible with life."
Corniou said that the aggressive behavior was unusual for bears, who typically only attack when they feel threatened or if there is food nearby.
"But here, it seems we are already talking about a direct attack, and this is not typical of bears. It needs to be seen exactly what influenced it. Maybe the heat, maybe some disease the animal is suffering from," he said.
"We need to see exactly what changed its behavior so radically that we end up with such events'"
Wild animal specialist Carmen Strungaru said it was unlikely that the bear dragged Diana off the cliff. "It is more likely that the girl, frightened, tried to run away, fell into the abyss and the bear with her," they said.
