A 19-year-old woman is dead after being attacked by a bear that threw her off a cliff during a hike with her boyfriend.
The victim, identified by the Daily Mail as Maria Diana, was hiking on the Jepii Mici trail in the Bucegi Mountains in Romania at the time of the incident on Tuesday, July 9.
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The woman and her boyfriend had both tried to contact local emergency dispatchers during the attack, RomaniaJournal.ro reported.
The first call reportedly came in from her boyfriend.
He informed Salvamont Prahova, a local search and rescue organization, that they were being chased by a bear, and provided the dispatcher with their location, per RomaniaJournal.ro.
The outlet said that around that same time, his girlfriend also made a call to Salvamont Prahova, but it was cut short by the attack.
“She was terrified… you can tell, she was screaming: ‘The bear is getting closer and closer!’” said Dan Banu, head of Salvamont Prahova.
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“Everything happened live, the 112 [emergency line] dispatcher was on the phone and the young man was shouting that they were being attacked by a bear and that he had taken the girl. It was something terrible! He told us that the bear grabbed the girl by one leg and was dragging her after he and, at some point, he didn’t see what he did with her. The bear dragged her from the path and threw her 120 meters into the valley,” Banu continued.
The young woman died at the scene.
Salvamont Prahova rescuers arrived and attempted to retrieve her body, but they were unsuccessful as the wild animal remained near it.
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“We were informed that a tourist was attacked by a bear on the Jepii Mici trail, near Valea Spumoasa. An intervention team from Salvamont Prahova moved to the area and, a short time ago, they abseiled down the valley floor, where they found the victim, unfortunately deceased. The recovery operation is extremely difficult, due to the rugged terrain and the continued presence of the bear, which is approximately 10-15 m from the mountain rescuers,” the organization said on Tuesday.
The bear was killed after it also attacked rescuers.
“It was something terrible! We have not faced such a serious situation in the last 10-15 years,” a Salvamont Prahova spokesperson told Digi24.ro, per RomaniaJournal.ro.
“I believe that the duty we have is to protect nature, to protect biodiversity, but above all, to protect people’s lives, because nothing is above human life,” Mircea Fechet, the Minister of the Environment, said after offering Diana’s family his condolences.
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According to EuroNews.com, during a press conference at the NATO summit in Washington on Wednesday, July 10, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said, “We cannot protect animals at the expense of people.”
Romania is home to the largest population of European brown bears. The wild animals can reach speeds of 30 mph and stand at 7 feet tall.
