A brown bear mauled a 16-year-old boy to death at a national park before a tourist stabbed it in the neck with a penknife.
The animal floored the tourist and lunged at another when they went in search of the missing teenager, who was working as a sherpa for a holiday group.
After leaving their tents to check for him, the two men were locked in a nine hour confrontation with the bear.
One them stabbed the creature repeatedly in the neck before playing dead, having suffered scratches, cuts and bruises from the fight.
The other one fled back to camp where tourists raised the alarm, and inspectors went in search of the bear.
Park staff at Russia’s Ergaki National Park, in the Sayan Mountains, rushed to the scene, some 500 yards from the camp.
There they the found the bear lying on the teenager’s devoured remains and shout and wounded the animal.
It survived and fled the scene, but early the following morning staff managed to track it down and kill it as it attacked them.
Igor Gryazin, director of the national park, said the 16-year-old boy had taken a shortcut which exposed him to additional danger.
Prolonged cold weather this year had led to thick snow cover, preventing the bears from feeding properly.
Ergaki is known as Russia’s Yosemite for its similarity to the Californian national park.
mtro DEAD BEAR PICTURE BELOW
