Russia probes bear attacks as official says town under ‘siege’

• At least six people have died in bear attacks in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region within a month, prompting a criminal negligence probe against local officials for failing to control bear populations.
• Russia's brown bear numbers have more than doubled since 1990, reaching nearly 308,000 in 2026, causing alarm despite bear attacks remaining steady nationally.
• The town of Abaza, with 10,000 residents, is reported to be "under siege" by bears, with officials struggling to manage the dangerous animal presence around the community.

MOSCOW - At least six people have been killed in bear attacks in Russia’s vast Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk in a month, prosecutors said on Sept 23, as an official in a neighbouring region reported bears had put one town “under siege”.

Prosecutors said they had opened a probe into criminal negligence, accusing local officials of failing to control bear numbers.

Russia’s brown bear population has more than doubled since 1990, from around 130,000 to almost 308,000 in 2026, according to Russia’s natural resources ministry.

While the number of bear attacks across Russia has remained constant at around 20 to 30 a year, according to the ministry, local media and officials have expressed alarm about the rising numbers.

Despite numerous warnings, local officials “failed to take measures to regulate the predator population or prevent them from appearing in areas inhabited by people”, the Investigative Committee of Russia’s sparsely populated Krasnoyarsk and Khakassia regions said on its website.

The bodies of two pensioners were found mauled in a forest near the remote town of Podtyosovo earlier in September, followed by the death of a 40-year-old factory worker who walked through the forest on Sept 6, according to local media.

Three others were killed in the following weeks. The latest victim was a 39-year-old logger guarding machinery in the forest early on Sept 23, investigators said.

The deputy head of the neighbouring Khakassia region, Dmitry Buchenik, said on Sept 23 that the forest town of Abaza – home to around 10,000 people – was surrounded by bears “on all sides”.

“It was an alarming night in Abaza. The taiga (coniferous forest) town is effectively under siege by bears,” he said.

“Some of the animals were chased off, but three were killed (one of them was huge),” he added.

Unverified social media videos purported to show a bear swimming across a river beside the town, while another showed a group of three bears leaping across a road in front of cars.

Russia’s emergency ministry says bears flee in the vast majority of encounters with humans. AFP