A man has been mauled to death by a wild brown bear while picking mushrooms in a Slovakian forest.
The bear severed one of the man’s main arteries with just one swipe of its paw, rescuers said.
Search teams in a helicopter were able to locate the injured man quickly despite the rugged grounds.
Emergency services posted on Facebook: ‘Unfortunately (the) man succumbed to injuries despite the efforts of rescuers.’
The 55-year-old’s death comes after two other separate bear attacks in Slovakia this year.
A woman was killed, and five others injured, after two bear attacks just hours apart from each other in Slovakia in March.
And earlier this week, a Belarusian woman was found dead in the Low Tatras mountains before five others were injured by an on-the-loose bear just eight miles away in Liptovsky Mikulas the next day.
A woman, 49, was treated for an injury to her shoulder and a 72-year-old man suffered a cut to his head in the Liptovsky Mikulas attack.
The rampaging bear also attacked a 10-year-old girl and two adults who suffered bruises and scratches, local authorities said.
Six armed patrols were hunting the beast before police eventually drove it out of the town and back into the forest.
The brown bear is considered Europe largest land-dwelling predator with an estimated population of between 17,000-18,000.
The beasts can typically be found in eastern Europe in the Carpathian Mountains of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine and Romania.
They prefer to inhabit mountains and dense forests.
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