To divide
The young runner would have defended himself with a stick, but for the 26-year-old Italian any help came too late: a bear killed the young man.
Caldes – There has been speculation since Thursday, now there is clarity: the jogger found dead in the province of Trentino, in northern Italy, was attacked by a bear and fatally wounded. This discovery now brings the autopsy. The young man’s body had serious injuries when it was found, and the runner’s body was found in the forests of Trentino, which is popular with tourists. Details suggest the 26-year-old must have been fighting for his life.
Runner attacked and killed by bear in Italy: autopsy reveals gruesome details
The young man was found near a forest path on Thursday morning in the municipality of Caldes, in the Val di Sole valley. According to the province, the man’s body had serious injuries. Deep scratches on the body and face, bites and a deep wound in the stomach would have quickly fueled suspicion that the young runner must have been killed by a bear.
This bear is in the enclosure. But in Trentino, a runner was killed by a wild animal. (symbol image) © Imagem Aliança/DPA | Oliver Berg
The young Italian’s family sounded the alarm after the 26-year-old failed to return from a run in the woods on Wednesday. After hours of searching involving several emergency services, his body was found by search dogs near the forest path. Due to the state of the body, the authorities ordered an autopsy. As several media are now reporting, this should confirm the terrible suspicion: the young man was the victim of a bear attack. As reported by ORF, among others, the young man would have fought for his life. Thus, a stick with traces of blood indicates that the 26-year-old still wanted to defend himself from the bear. The Italian newspaper Repubblica reports that a bite on the neck caused the young man’s death.
“Today is a sad day for the municipality of Val di Sole and for Trentino, which gathers around the family and friends of the young man who died in the woods of Caldes,” the province said on Thursday.
Italy: wild bears are troubling the region – first attack in early March
However, the forestry body of Trentino and the provincial administration repeatedly warn of possible encounters with wild animals in the forests and mountainous areas of the region. In the mountainous and wooded area, lynxes, wolves and bears are particularly native. However, wild bears in particular have been causing problems for the region for some time. About 100 bears live there in the wild – and the number of bears is increasing according to regional data. In 1999, as part of the EU project “Life Ursus”, a dozen bears were brought from Slovenia and released in the region where the bear population was feared to be extinct at the time.
According to the agricultural association Coldiretti, the spread of bears poses a serious risk not only to the safety of the local population, but also to the economy, from agriculture to tourism.
In the area, just under an hour’s drive from the provincial and regional capital of Trento, bears have been sighted repeatedly. Residents told L’Adige newspaper that there had been several attacks on farm animals such as sheep in the past month. In early March, not far from Caldes, a man walking his dog was attacked by a bear and injured his head and arm.