A teenage hiker who was tragically killed by a rabid bear after it dragged her off a 400ft cliff in Romania has been identified and photographed for the first time.
The 19-year-old, named locally as Maria Diana, was hiking in the Bucegi Mountains in central Romania near the city of Brasov on Tuesday when she was savagely attacked by the bear in front of her horrified companion.
According to the victim’s boyfriend, the bear first grabbed the teen’s leg and pulled her out of the way before throwing her 330 feet off a cliff.
Local officials revealed that Maria managed to call emergency services while they were chasing her.
Dan Banu, head of the local mountain rescue service, told local media: ‘She was terrified… you could tell, she was screaming: ‘The bear is getting closer and closer!’
‘Everything was happening live, the emergency operator was on the phone and (her partner) was screaming that they were being attacked by the bear and that it had taken the girl. It was terrible!
The 19-year-old, named locally as Maria Diana (pictured), was hiking in the Bucegi Mountains in central Romania.
The bear first grabbed the teenager’s leg and pulled her out of the way before throwing her 330 feet off a cliff.
Emergency services were called to the scene but Maria was tragically pronounced dead at the scene.
Pictured: A bear in the mountains of Romania. On Tuesday, a 19-year-old woman was attacked and killed by a bear in Romania.
The attack took place in the Bucegi Mountains in central Romania, near the city of Brasov, on Tuesday.
“She told us that the bear grabbed the girl by the leg and at one point she didn’t see what it did to her.”
When rescuers arrived at the scene, they found the beast snarling around the body. The “aggressive” predator tried to attack them and was then shot dead.
The victim’s boyfriend, whose identity has also not been revealed, witnessed the horrific attack but was unharmed.
He told Stirile Pro TV that he and his girlfriend were hiking towards the Spumoasa waterfall when the bear appeared on the path.
He said: “It was unexpected. I tried to scare the bear away, but then disaster struck. I would have preferred it to have happened to me.”
He managed to save himself, the report added, and was found in a state of shock when rescuers arrived.
Speaking to CNN Antenna 3Sabin Corniou, president of Salvamont Romania, the country’s mountain rescue service, explained: “According to the information we have, the bear attacked the young woman on the path, dragged her into the vegetation next to the path and somewhere in this vegetation dropped her into a chasm and there she fell. The bear came down after her.”
The girl was walking with her boyfriend.
The head of the country’s mountain rescue service said: “This is a situation we have not encountered before.”
Romania’s prime minister will call lawmakers into an extraordinary parliamentary session to look at ways to prevent bear attacks following the tragedy.
“My colleagues went down into the abyss, where unfortunately the victim’s injuries were incompatible with life,” he added.
Speaking to another media outlet, Europe FMCornoiu said: ‘This is a situation we have not encountered before. (…) We have had situations where animals came, threatened, demanded food and made their presence felt in order to receive something.
‘But here it seems that we are talking about a direct attack, and this is not typical for bears. We have to see what exactly has influenced it. Maybe the heat, maybe some disease that the animal suffers from.
“We need to see exactly what changed his behavior so radically for us to stop such events.”
Meanwhile, Romania’s prime minister is set to call lawmakers into an extraordinary parliamentary session to look at ways to prevent bear attacks following the tragedy.
Romania is home to Europe’s largest brown bear population (estimated at 8,000) outside of Russia.
Local media have regularly reported bear attacks on people and livestock. In most cases, people have been injured rather than killed.
The environment minister said in March that 26 people have been killed by bears in the past 20 years.
Romania is home to Europe’s largest brown bear population (estimated at 8,000) outside of Russia.
Marcel Ciolacu told reporters on Wednesday that he would call politicians back from a recess that begins at the end of June and continues until early September.
He did not specify when the extraordinary session would be held, but said the aim was to agree on measures targeting high-risk areas.
“There will be no free hunting of bears in Romania,” he said.
Local media have regularly reported bear attacks on people and livestock. In most cases, people have been injured rather than killed.
The environment minister said in March that 26 people have been killed by bears in the past 20 years.
In 2021, a government decree gave municipal authorities the power to shoot bears that broke into people’s gardens and homes if attempts to scare them away or relocate them had failed.
Animal rights activists criticized the decree at the time, saying officials had not done enough to try other prevention measures, including electric fences and better management.
They also said attacks have increased due to human behaviour, as the animals’ habitat is threatened by construction, logging and climate change. Many bears are also attracted to rubbish dumps on the outskirts of cities and food left behind by tourists.
Pictured: Dragon’s Ridge in the Bucegi Mountains, where the bear attack occurred on Tuesday
According to government figures, there are around 8,000 brown bears In the Romanian Carpathians, it is the second largest bear population in Europe, after Russia.
He World Animal Foundation He said that between 2016 and 2021, Romania had suffered 14 deaths and 158 injuries from bear attacks.
The attack comes just months after an elderly British tourist was attacked by a ferocious bear after she rolled down her car window to take a selfie with it while visiting Romania.
The 72-year-old Scottish woman was driving on the Transfăgărășan mountain road in Argeş county on April 22 when she encountered two bears.
When he stopped the car to take a photo with the impressive predators, one of the bears jumped on its hind legs directly outside his vehicle.
The most recent bear attack in Romania came after a British woman was attacked by a bear while visiting the country. Her injuries were not life-threatening.
The 72-year-old Scottish tourist was driving along a mountain road in Romania when she came across two bears.
After deciding she wanted to take a selfie with the bear, she rolled down her car window, but one of the predators had jumped on its hind legs.
The tourist bravely rolled down her window to get a better look at the beast and prepared her phone for the photo.
But in a macabre turn of events, the bear pounced on her and ripped off her right arm.
His passenger companion quickly stepped on the accelerator as the couple fled the scene of horror, making a desperate attempt to escape further attacks.
The woman was rushed to a nearby hospital after the brutal attack in the Carpathian Mountains.
However, his injuries were not life-threatening.
Romania’s Environment Minister Mircea Fechet has been calling for higher bear hunting quotas to prevent brutal attacks.