By YASUHIRO KUMABE/ Staff Writer
December 2, 2024 at 16:42 JST
Police officers enter a supermarket in Akita city on Nov. 2, where a bear that had been hiding in the store had been captured in a trap. (Yasuhiro Kumabe)
AKITA—A bizarre standoff between police and a marauding bear holed up in a supermarket here finally ended with the animal’s capture on Dec. 2, two days after it broke in and mauled an employee.
The bear, about 1 meter in length, had been hiding in the backroom of the Itoku Tsuchizaki Minato Store since the initial attack.
Authorities decided to capture the animal by sealing off exits from the backroom, except for two doors connecting the backroom to the sales floor, where they set live cage traps on Dec 1.
The plan succeeded, and the bear was found alive inside one of the traps the following morning.
Police were first called around 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 30, after the bear entered the store and attacked a 47-year-old employee, injuring the man’s face and head.
The store was closed at the time, so no shoppers were present.
Inside the supermarket, the meat section had been ransacked, vases in the floral department were shattered and blood—believed to be from the bear—was found nearby.
Multiple bear sightings had been reported in that area of the prefectural capital the night before the attack, including an incident where a car collided with a bear on National Route 7, near the supermarket.
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