Mystery of the Russian Bear Man deepens
The search for the identity of an emaciated man who it was believed had miraculously survived in a bear’s den in Russia for a month took a fresh twist today.
It has now been claimed that the victim was actually in hospital in Kazakhstan and had never been attacked.
The bearded ‘living mummy’ who purportedly survived a horrific ordeal after being ambushed by the bear, was first reported in the Moscow media before making international headlines.
A graphic video and pictures showed the appalling condition of the ‘survivor’, who was said to have suffered a broken spine in the attack by the bear who stashed him to eat later.
Horrifying pictures emerged of a Russian man, who only gave his name as Alexander, in a dreadful state in hospital after purportedly living in a bear den
It was claimed he had been trapped inside a bear den after the predator broke his spine and saved him for a future meal.
Russian survives being KIDNAPPED by a Bear and held for a month
Today, Moscow-based EADaily news agency which was behind the story offered a cash reward for anyone who can identify the man, known only as Alexander.
But every hospital in Tuva, the area where the attack was reported to have happened, has now denied that the man had been a patient.
At the same time, checks by independent researchers point to the video clip of the man being not from Russia, but neighboring Kazakhstan.
A second language used by female voices in the footage has been revealed not as Tuvan but Kazakh.
And tonight a group searching for lost people in Kazakhstan claim that the video shows a man who was recently admitted to hospital in the city of Aktobe.
It was claimed that the man had been trapped inside a bear den after the predator broke his spine and saved him for a future meal.
The distance between Kyzyl, the regional capital of Tuva, and Aktobe, is around 1,600 miles.
The group called zello.poisk investigated whether the man in the video called Alexander might be a missing male they were looking for with the same name.
He wasn’t, but they did clarify he comes from Aktobe and had not been attacked by a bear.
In a posting, they said: ‘We checked the hospitals (in Aktobe) and asked them to help us.
‘In the end, we discovered that this man (in the ‘bear den’ case) is from our city.
‘He is being treated in one of the hospitals and is getting better.’
The group said of the man featured in the video: ‘He is ill.
‘But the doctors said that they will cure him.
A hospital source in Aktobe also indicated today that the bearded man in the video is a patient under treatment.
However, there was no formal statement to confirm this from the hospital tonight.
Nor was there any information on how the man in the video had come about the injuries shown on the video.
The bear den story had been covered by major media in Russia including Izvestia, Vesti and Moskovsky Komsomolets.
In a new story on the case today, EADaily pleaded for fresh information about the man’s identity.
‘The fact remains that a certain man named Alexander is in the most difficult condition in one of the hospitals.
