58-year-old woman killed in bear attack in Poland

A display of Polish flags to mark Polish Army Day in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (Damian Lemanski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A 58-year-old woman was killed by a bear in Southeastern Poland on Thursday, Pawel Giba, press officer for the District State Fire Service Headquarters in Sanok, told AFP.

A report received by the fire department “indicated that in the village of Plonna a woman was allegedly attacked by a bear,” he said.

The report was filed by the woman’s son.

Three fire squads and police were dispatched to the scene, but “did not proceed with first aid measures due to the extent of the woman’s bodily injuries,” he added.

Their arrival was delayed by “the difficult terrain and the lack of precise location details.”

Upon their arrival, paramedics pronounced the woman dead at the scene.

Currently, “securing activities are underway,” and a prosecutor is arriving in the area, according to the spokesman.

Poland has a population of about 100 brown bears, 80 percent of them in Poland’s mountainous Bieszczady region, where the latest attack took place, according to Polish government data from 2024.

However, fatal attacks remain extremely rare with the last fatal bear attack in Poland in 2014, according to local media.