A woman has been ambushed and mauled to death by a brown bear as she picked berries, with rescuers only finding her boots and chewed-up bucket at the scene.
Lyudmila Komarova managed to escape and raised the alarm on Russia‘s largest island, Sakhalin.
When rescuers reached the scene they found only Lyudmila’s boots, her bucket for berries and the tragic woman’s backpack.
Among the search party was the 63-year-old woman’s son.
The friend Natalya Borisovna said she was the first to see the bear, and had shouted at the beast: ‘Go away….’
The bear – a female with a cub nearby – then savagely attacked Komarova.
‘Then there was just silence,’ said Natalya.
‘Slowly, I made my way to Laguri village.’
When rescuers reached the scene they found only victim Lyudmila Komarova’s (pictured) belongings
Her chewed up boots were found on the ground
A major search had to be aborted overnight because the mother and cub remained close to the ‘prey’.
‘The animals were only 35 metres [115ft] away, making it too dangerous to proceed,’ reported news outlet Tvokha news outlet.
The search resumed on Monday.
The rescuers fired shots to scare the animals but the mother bear kept returning to the pensioner’s mauled body.
They were forced to destroy the mother bear because it threatened to attack the rescuers – and the cub was wounded in the firefight.
The woman’s son was among the rescuers who retrieved the mauled corpse.
It comes just weeks after a Russian tourist was left fighting for her life after she was dragged from her tent and mauled by a wild bear.
Natalya K, 43, was sleeping while on an adventure tour in Kamchatka in eastern Russia when the beast climbed into her tent and attacked her.
The bear – a female with a cub nearby – savagely attacked Komarova (File image)
The bucket she used to pick berries was also found nearby
The tourist suffered ‘deep wounds’ after the bear tore her scalp and sank its teeth into her back.
Her screams alerted other campers who eventually scared the brown bear away.
A medic treated the woman at the scene of the attack before she was rushed to hospital for immediate surgery.
Natalya, from the Russian city Saratov, was also injected with vaccines against rabies and tetanus.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .