{"id":2940397,"date":"2026-09-24T10:24:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/2940397\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T10:24:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:24:58","slug":"russia-probes-bear-attacks-as-official-says-town-under-siege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/2940397\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia probes bear attacks, as official says town under &#8216;siege&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AFP049384_00.pre.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t      At least six people have been killed in bear attacks in Russia&#8217;s vast Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk in a month, prosecutors said Wednesday, as an official in a neighbouring region reported bears had put one town under siege.<br \/>  Prosecutors said they had opened a probe into criminal negligence, accusing local officials of failing to control bear numbers.<br \/>  Russia&#8217;s brown bear population has more than doubled since 1990, from around 130,000 to almost 308,000 individuals in 2026, according to Russia&#8217;s natural resources ministry.<br \/>  While the number of bear attacks across Russia has remained constant at around 20 to 30 a year, according to the ministry, local media and officials have expressed alarm about the rising numbers.<br \/>  Despite numerous warnings, local officials failed to take measures to regulate the predator population or prevent them from appearing in areas inhabited by people, the Investigative Committee of Russia&#8217;s sparsely-populated Krasnoyarsk and Khakassia regions said on its website.<br \/>  The bodies of two pensioners were found mauled in a forest near the remote town of Podtyosovo earlier this month, followed by the death of a 40-year-old factory worker who walked through the forest on September 6, according to local media.<br \/>  Three others were killed in the following weeks, the latest of which was a 39-year-old logger guarding machinery in the forest early Wednesday, investigators said.<br \/>  The deputy head of the neighbouring Khakassia region, Dmitry Buchenik, said Wednesday that the forest town of Abaza &#8212; home to around 10,000 people &#8212; was surrounded by bears on all sides.<br \/>  It was an alarming night in Abaza. The taiga town is effectively under siege by bears, he said.<br \/>  Some of the animals were chased off, but three were killed (one of them was huge), he added.<br \/>  Unverified social media videos purported to show a bear swimming across a river beside the town, while another showed a group of three bears leaping across a road in front of cars.<br \/>  Russia&#8217;s emergency ministry says bears flee in the vast majority of encounters with humans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least six people have been killed in bear attacks in Russia&#8217;s vast Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk in <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2940398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[784998],"tags":[98706,30356,528524,32077,939,1670,98751,73191,11802,200,125020,78392,6798,17757,812,7062,4817,3687,4313,31168,1712,345531,6330,784979,2722,11034,784980,1668,3843,13633,11786,3577,16899,21135,302851,482,14115,577,1669],"class_list":["post-2940397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-jiji","tag-russia","tag-topics","tag-topix","tag-939","tag-1670","tag-98751","tag-73191","tag-11802","tag-200","tag-125020","tag-78392","tag-6798","tag-17757","tag-812","tag-7062","tag-4817","tag-3687","tag-4313","tag-31168","tag-1712","tag-345531","tag-6330","tag-784979","tag-2722","tag-11034","tag-784980","tag-1668","tag-3843","tag-13633","tag-11786","tag-3577","tag-16899","tag-21135","tag-302851","tag-482","tag-14115","tag-577","tag-1669"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/wakoka.com\/@news\/117325537316363151","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2940397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2940397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2940397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2940398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2940397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2940397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2940397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}