Bear attacks tourist in northern Italy

A foreign tourist, reportedly French, has been taken to hospital after being attacked on Tuesday by a bear in northern Italy, the local authority said.

The victim was a 43-year-old French tourist who had been out running, according to the AGI news agency. It said his life was not in danger.

“This morning a foreign tourist was attacked by a bear in Naroncolo, in the municipality of Dro,” just north of Lake Garda, according to a statement from the province of the city of Trento.

“The man was helped by medics and airlifted to the Santa Chiara hospital in Trento with injuries to his limbs.”

Forestry officials are investigating, the province said.

There are around 100 bears in the wider region of Trentino, according to provincial authorities.

In April 2023, a jogger in Trentino was killed in a bear attack on a woodland path, launching a debate on the dangers posed by the animals reintroduced in the region between 1996 and 2004.

That plan had allowed for just 50 bears to be introduced, but their numbers have grown in recent years.

The female bear accused of killing the jogger — whom campaigners said was innocent — was separated from her cubs after the incident and taken to an enclosure.

After numerous appeals from animal rights activists, provincial authorities announced in May that the bear, identified as JJ4, would be transferred to Germany later this year to a refuge near the Black Forest.