Eleven people were injured, two of them critically, when a grizzly bear attacked a group of schoolchildren and teachers on a walking trail in British Columbia, Canada.
The attack happened on Thursday in Bella Coola, 435 miles (700km) northwest of Vancouver. The Nuxalk Nation said the “aggressive bear” remained on the loose and police and conservation officers were on the scene.
“We are devastated for the individuals and families impacted by the bear incident,” Nuxalk Nation chief Samuel Schooner said in a statement. “All individuals involved are receiving medical support and our priority is to ensure that they are safe.”
The nation also said that officers were armed and patrolling the community, with more conservation officers headed to the area. The nation also advised people to stay inside and had quickly set up a ride service as a way of preventing people from moving around outside.
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Two people were critically injured and two had serious injuries, the emergency health services spokesperson, Brian Twaites, said. The others were treated at the scene.
Bella Coola, a community of roughly 2,100 people, sits at the end of a fjord along the province’s central coast. Its remote location and abundant food sources mean that grizzly bears are a common sight in the region, informally known as the Great Bear Rainforest.
Veronica Schooner, a parent of one of the children, said a lot of people tried to stop the attack but one male teacher “got the whole brunt of it” and was among the people taken by helicopter from the scene.
Ms Schooner’s 10-year-old son, Alvarez, was in the class of fourth- and fifth-graders and was so close to the animal “he even felt its fur”, she said.
“He said that bear ran so close to him, but it was going after somebody else,” Ms Schooner said.
She added that some children were hit with bear spray as the teachers fought off the bear and Alvarez was limping and his shoes were muddy from running for safety. Her son’s thoughts, however, were with his classmates.
“He keeps crying for his friends, and oh my goodness, right away he started praying for his friends,” she said.
Acwsalcta school, an independent school run by Nuxalk First Nation in Bella Coola, said in a Facebook post that the school would be closed on Friday and counselling made available.
“It’s hard to know what to say during this very difficult time. We are so grateful for our team and our students,” the post said.
Grizzlies, which have coexisted with the Nuxalk Nation for generations, have a deep cultural significance for many of the First Nations along the Pacific coast.
Many of those communities were on the front lines of a successful fight to end the trophy hunting of grizzly bears in British Columbia.
The Nuxalk bear safe programme, which applies non-lethal approaches to preventing and mitigating attacks, also acknowledges that incidents need to be treated on a “case by case basis”.
