Bear charges after ski instructor in nerve-wracking chase as he lures it away from his students – just weeks after another skier escaped from the beast’s ‘brother’ at the same resort in Romania
This is the hair-raising moment a ski instructor was chased down a mountain by a fearless bear in a Romanian winter resort.
The attack on March 9 is the second time in a few weeks that wild bears have chased skiers at the Predeal ski resort in the Brașov region of Romania.
Local police have issued warnings to skiers following the incidents.
Instructor Adrian Stoica, 50, started filming the bear after spotting it emerging from nearby trees as he was about to begin a lesson.
Ski instructor Adrian Stoica, 50, had about 15 students on the slopes at the Predeal ski resort in Brasov on Tuesday when he spotted the bear, pictured, emerging from the woods
Mr Stoica encouraged the bear, pictured, to chase him instead of his students who are pictured in the background
Stoica said he wanted to tire out the bear so it would return to the woods and leave the slopes
Romanian authorities believe the animal is the brother of another bear who chased another skier on the slopes in January
Dramatic footage shows him trying to ward off the bear by shouting, but the animal ignores him and ventures closer and closer to the group of skiers.
Finally, concerned for the safety of his class, Mr Stoica took drastic action to lure the bear away from the group.
He told ABC News: ‘I was just checking the ski slope condition before I take my students for a ski lesson.
‘As I was skiing down the mountain, a bear suddenly appeared on the slope and a group of at least 15 skiers was trapped on the spot.
‘I told them to try to chase the bear away by making noise and shouting. It did not work.
‘I slowly waved my arms, slowly moved out of the group and made the bear come after me as he was really close to the group.
‘I was just hoping that the bear would get tired and would go back to the forest.’
As he tried to escape the bear, he could see trouble ahead: other skiers farther down the slope.
But he shouted a warning and, he said, went ‘whizzing’ past them with the bear in hot pursuit.
At one stage in the footage the bear looks to be gaining ground. But eventually he becomes tired and heads off into the trees again.
In January a skier was forced to throw their backpack into the snow to distract a bear and make their escape.
Local police spokesman Ion Zaharia said the young animal in this week’s incident was the brother of that bear.
And there at least one more bear who could yet emerge onto the slopes.
‘Their mother, she was not seen this year at all,’ Zaharia said.
Police said the expansion of ski resorts, a growth in tourism and an increased number of mountain homes is bringing people into more contact with bears.
Experts also suggest that climate change is causing bears to wake up from hibernation earlier than normal.
Eventually the bear gave up and wandered off into the woods, to Mr Stoica’s relief
In January a tourist was chased down the slopes of the resort by another brown bear
Following the January incident authorities in Brașov issued two Ro-Alert messages, to warn residents of the area of the danger.
In the week before that incident there had been another report of a bear on a slope at the nearby Clăbucet resort.
Around 6,000 brown bears are known to live in Romania.
It is legal to hunt the animals, a measure which was brought in by the country’s government in 2019 in an attempt to control their numbers.