April 24, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

Hell’s week and happy salvation

The American, who was terrorized by a bear for a whole week, was accidentally noticed by the crew of a US Coast Guard helicopter in a forest in Alaska.

A man can rightfully consider this day his second birthday. For a week he was in a hut in the forest, and a grizzly bear regularly visited him. The first meeting with an aggressive animal ended dramatically for the American. The bear first attacked the man, tore his leg and chest with its claws, and then dragged him to a nearby river. The man miraculously managed to escape, escape and hide in a hut in an abandoned mine.

His shelter was located about 70 km from the city of Nome, there were no people around, and mobile communications did not work. The man could not get to the city because of his wounds and fear of meeting the aggressor bear again. But he found him in the hut, and began to visit regularly “on a visit.”

Somehow bandaging his wounds, the American scrawled SOS on the roof and began to expect help, although there was no particular hope for it. On one of the visits, the bear managed to break down the door and had to barricade himself inside. The elderly man could not sleep, fearing for his life, and shot almost all the cartridges in the pistol, but could not get into the animal.

The sound of the helicopter became for him a ray of hope for salvation. He jumped out of the hut and began waving a white rag invitingly, calling for help. When the pilots noticed him and landed, he fell exhausted. The New York Times compared the incident to the movie “The Survivor”, where the hero Leonardo DiCaprio also escaped from an aggressive bear.

The publication does not disclose the name of the victim, indicating only the age – 60 years. It is known that he is a tourist, and at the present time nothing threatens his life. Lieutenant Hammak, the helicopter’s co-pilot, was the first to notice the trapped American’s calls. He believes that everything happened by a fluke, as the helicopter deviated from the set course, bypassing thick clouds:

“In this wilderness, we hardly met people and were very surprised.”

The rotorcraft flew to Nome to pick up there and deliver to the ocean shore experts who are engaged in counting dead animals – fur seals, walruses, whales. The Alaska Department of Hunting and Fishing said that the state is rightfully called bear, but animal attacks on people are extremely rare, and the case when a bear chases a certain person for a long time is generally exceptional.

Nevertheless, over the past 2 decades, grizzly bears have killed 10 people in Alaska, 68 have been mutilated. And the last incident once again reminds us – when going to uninhabited places, it is very important to have a signal radio beacon with you.

The number of grizzly bears is estimated at 55 thousand individuals, 30 thousand of them live in Alaska. These are very strong animals that can run faster than a horse at short distances.





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