The video of the dramatic moment in the Predeal mountain resort in Romania, where there have been several sightings over the past few years, was recorded by shocked eyewitnesses.
Spectators tried to distract the bear by whistling and screaming during the chase, but the skier was rescued by his own ingenious maneuver.
“He made a pretty cool move, which is really safe if you want to get away from the bear,” Angel Somicu, who spotted the bear an hour earlier with another skier, Daniel Jenei, told ABC News said. “He unloaded his bag, and the bear was dragged to the bag.”
Another dramatic video shot at the scene of a ski lift shows the bear chasing the skier quickly before finally shaking its tail.
The bear chase caused panic among the skiers on the mountain, after authorities informed them of the dramatic sighting.
“Ski patrol stopped us and said there was a bear at the bottom of the slope,” Jenei said. “All the people who were there threw down their skis and ran off the slope.”
After the bear was frightened away, the authorities allegedly promised to investigate the situation and relocate the bear to a safer area.
Local police told ABC News they had received three emergency calls about the bear being spotted at various locations during the day.
“The skier did the right thing,” Ion Zaharia, a police spokesman in Brasov, Romania, told ABC News. “The bear was distracted by things in his backpack. We are considering relocating the bear, which now needs to sleep, anyway, but over the past few years we have had more bears confronting skiers in the winter.”
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