Bear shot dead after attacking four people in residential area in Japan

A brown bear was shot dead in northern Japan after tearing through a residential area on Friday and injuring four people, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

A local resident in the city of Sapporo, which is due to host the Olympic Marathon and Olympic Race Walking events at this summer’s Tokyo Games, first reported sighting a bear on a road in the early hours of the morning.

Soon after, Hokkaido police tweeted they were on the lookout for the bear, writing that since the sighting, many others had reported seeing the bear and that people had been injured.

“If you spot a bear, please be very careful, escape immediately and call 110,” Hokkaido police tweeted.

News footage from local station HTB Hokkaido News showed the bear running along a residential street, crossing a busy road and pawing at the gates of a Japan Self Defense Force military barracks, before running away.

Local police said the bear attacked three men, one of whom was seriously injured, and a woman in her 80s, according to NHK.

At around 11 a.m., the bear was shot down by two men from the local hunting association near Sapporo Okadama airport, NHK reported.