The bear spotted a few days ago near the zoo in Sandanski has not yet been found. The local authorities warned residents and tourists to avoid the area and to be especially careful.
Residents of Sandanski told bTV about two encounters with the animal. Yanka Samardzhieva from Lilyanovo saw the bear about five meters away from her.
„I saw the bear 5 meters away from me. It looks at me and I look at it. I froze and that's it“, said Samardzhieva.According to her, the animal started to come down towards her, but did not continue approaching. „When it saw me that I was weak - it said, what am I going to eat this woman. "And left me," the woman said.
On Friday, Martin encountered the bear while driving in the zoo area. The animal emerged from the river a few meters in front of his car.
“To scare it off, I decided to step on the gas and honk and it started after me. Then, when it saw that it couldn't catch up with me, it got scared and went up into the woods,“ Martin said. He specified that he wasn't scared because he was in the car.
Georgi Kamenarov, the zoo manager, said that the bear may have sensed the game in the area and come down to the places where there are domestic animals. According to him, the lack of food due to the drought may also be a reason for the animals approaching settlements.
“There are slight concerns, but it seems that things have calmed down and subsided these days“, said Kamenarov.
The mayor of Lilyanovo, Kostadin Nikolov, said that people in the village are not very worried. According to him, hunters from the area believe that the bear will not stay in the village and is probably already moving in the forest.
Yanka Samardzhieva advised people to remain still and not make sudden movements when encountering a bear.