A Bulgarian man says he lived through a terrifying bear attack in Romania after stopping along a popular mountain road where tourists often go to see wild bears.
Georgi Bizhev, 46, chairman of the Sports and Technical Commission of the Zonal Council of the Bulgarian Football Union, said he was traveling to Hungary on May 27 to attend a soccer match when the frightening encounter happened.
Bizhev said he and a friend were heading to Budapest to watch the Champions League final when they drove through an area known to tourists as “Bear Road” or “Bear Pass.”
“As we do every year, we travelled through the so-called Bear Pass, or the pass that is closest to the sky,” he said during an appearance on The Day Begins, according to BNT News.
Bizhev said the area is well known for one thing: bears.
“Everyone who goes through this pass goes there for one reason only — to see the bears,” he said.
He also claimed local businesses encourage tourists to feed the animals, saying some shops even sell food for visitors to give to the bears.
But the encounter quickly turned dangerous.
Bizhev said another vehicle ahead of him had stopped, and the people inside were feeding a bear and her cub. His car was behind them, and another vehicle carrying Ukrainian tourists was behind his.
He said he stayed inside his car and believed he was safe because the windows were closed.
“The glass was closed and I felt safe,” he said, according to reports.
Bizhev claimed he did not get out of the vehicle or provoke the animal. He alleged the tourists behind him began shouting and honking, which he believes made the situation worse.
Then the bear lunged at his car.
“We saw how the glass of our car was like a sheet of paper to it,” Bizhev said.
The animal reportedly smashed through the window and tried to pull him out.
“Perhaps the fact that I was wearing a seatbelt saved me to some extent,” he said. “It tried to grab me and pull me out of the vehicle.”
Bizhev suffered bite injuries to his left arm and later underwent surgery. He said he is otherwise in stable condition, though his recovery is expected to take three to four months.
He has since admitted that feeding the bear was a mistake, though he said the practice is common in the area.
“There is no one who goes there and does not feed the bears, which does not justify either me or the actions of the person I was with in feeding a wild animal,” he said. “But we do not believe that we did anything wrong.”
Romanian authorities prohibit feeding bears, and violators can face steep fines reportedly ranging from about $2,200 to $6,600.
The terrifying incident is now serving as a chilling reminder that wild animals can turn dangerous in seconds, even when tourists believe they are safely inside a vehicle.
