Story By: Anna Casap, Sub Editor: Alex Cope, Agency: Central European News

Video Credit: CEN

This is the moment residents run along a city street in fear as four bears suddenly appear in hot pursuit. 

The incident took place in the city of Yelizovo in the north-eastern Russian region of Kamchatka Krai when an adult brown bear (Ursus arctos) and three cubs entered the built-up area.

The regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said: “A bear with three cubs took to the streets of Yelizovo and police officers managed to drive the animals back into the forest.

The ministry added that professional hunters have gone to the area to kill the bears.

According to reports, the police managed to drive the bears towards the nearby river and woodland and hunters are currently tracking them.

Since the beginning of the year, 62 bears have been put down in the Kamchatka Peninsula while three people have been killed by bear attacks, according to local media.

Governor of Kamchatka Vladimir Ivanovich Ilyukhin said on social media: “There are groups involved in the shooting of bears that enter urban areas and threaten the lives of citizens.

“When there is a threat, all efforts are made to ensure the animal is either relocated or shot.”

According to experts, around 20,000 brown bears live on the far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.

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