Man attacked by bear inside public restroom in Tokyo
A man was attacked by a bear inside a public restroom near a train station in Gunma Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, in the early hours of Friday, police said, Kyodo reported.
The 69-year-old security guard has told the police that he noticed the bear looking inside when he was about to exit the restroom building just outside JR Numata Station. He sustained minor abrasions to his right leg.
The man fell on his backside but fought back by kicking, causing the bear, measuring around 1 to 1.5 meters in length, to flee. He rushed to a nearby police box to report the incident at around 1:20 a.m.
Train station operations had already finished for the day at the time of the attack.
Japan has seen an increase in sightings of and encounters with bears amid a scarcity of food in their natural habitats. The number of bear attack victims between April and October totaled 197, with the figure nearing the annual worst of 219 recorded in fiscal 2023, according to the Environment Ministry's preliminary figures.
Earlier, it was reported that Japan's National Police Agency amended its rules to allow police officers to use rifles to kill bears, in response to a recent surge in bear attacks on humans.