The bear which injured five people in mid-March in the center of a tourist town in Slovakia was shot dead, the government announced on Wednesday, which had declared a state of emergency following the attack.
“The bear that injured five people in Liptovsky Mikulas was successfully shot yesterday... A biometric drone was used to identify it,” Environment Minister Tomas Taraba announced on his social networks, while the opposition argues that authorities targeted the wrong animal.
Bear attacks are on the rise in the central European country, with 20 incidents recorded last year compared to just eight in 2021, according to data from the Slovak Environment Ministry.
A bill passed
In March, a woman from Belarus died following another bear attack in the same district of Liptovsky Mikulas, a town in central Slovakia at the foot of the Tatra Mountains and near popular ski resorts .
VIDEO – Bear attacks in Slovakia: hiker found dead and two other people injured
Bratislava on Wednesday adopted a bill aimed at combating bear attacks in urban areas, establishing a security perimeter 500 meters from their entrance in which any bear that enters could be shot, according to Tomas Taraba.
On Monday, the Slovak Environment Minister, with his Romanian and Finnish counterparts, called on Brussels to formulate a European solution on this subject, according to the TASR news agency.