It has been declared that the mother bear with two cubs who on Saturday morning attacked an 80-year-old woman outside her home in Vrh nad Želimljami, a village about 15 kilometres south of Ljubljana, will be shot. The culling decree stays valid till next Sunday, while people from the Škofljica area have been asked to stay inside, especially in the early morning and evening hours.
This wasn't the bear's first attack on a human in the area. Last Sunday the bear charged at a jogger who managed to run away after startling her by firing a blank from a gun.
Video of the bear running across the neighbour's playground on the morning before the attack. The video was filmed by the woman’s neighbour, the former environmental minister, Jure Leben
The attack occurred amid the farmers’ protests due to large predator attacks on their sheep, prompting the National Assembly’s confirmation of an intervention law aimed at the growing populations of brown bear and wolf in the country. According to the law, 200 bears and 11 wolves are to be culled this year. Such interventions have been so far declared by a decree but have not been carried out due to a judicial delay.
