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New bear park in Bern, Switzerland

Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A 25-year-old man who was injured when he climbed the wall of the new bear park in Bern, then slipped, is in stable condition after he was attacked by one of the bears. Finn, the nearly 4-year-old male who injured him, was wounded by gunfire from a policeman who was trying to save the young man, and the bear is in serious condition, according to Bernd Schildger, the head of Dählhölzli, the animal park of which the bear pit is a part. If Finn survives, which is not yet clear, he will not be put down, says Schildger.

Police have not been able to determine why the man, who is mentally handicapped, decided to climb the wall, where he crouched for a moment before falling four metres into the bears’ den.

Reto Nause, city manager with responsibility for security, said video footage show him then walking towards the bear, which, behaving normally and protecting his territory, attacked. It took security forces 7 minutes to arrive, at which point a police officer shot the bear, after some of the hundreds of onlookers, visitors to the popular park, had tried to distract the animal by throwing things at him.

The new bear park in Bern opened in late October 2009, replacing the hugely popular Bern bear pit, the city’s main tourist attraction for years. Finn and another brown bear, Bjoerk, a female, currently live there and two young Siberian bears, offered by Russia, will move to the park when their quarantine period is up.

Links to other sites: Dählhölzli Bern bear park, TSR, 20 Minutes (Fre)