An Asian black bear that entered a supermarket in the city of Akita (northeastern Japan) on Saturday and attacked an employee, causing injuries, was captured and sacrificed on Monday, as confirmed by local police.
The animal, confined for two days in the establishment, got caught in one of the traps with honey, apples, and bread that authorities set up to apprehend it in a storage area of the store and died at 8:10 local time (23:10 GMT on Sunday).
A man is attacked by a bear in a supermarket in northeastern Japan as sightings in populated areas multiply
Around 20 supermarket employees were surprised on Saturday by the bear's entry, approximately one meter tall, as they were getting ready for the start of the day, before opening to the public.
On the same day at 6:20 local time (21:20 GMT on Friday), the animal attacked one of the workers, a 47-year-old who suffered injuries to the forehead and ears, although his life was not in danger, as reported by the Police and local media.
Japanese authorities have urged the population to be alert this autumn, before bears start hibernating, both in rural and urban areas, due to the record number of bear sightings this year in populated areas.
Faced with the increasing sightings and attacks by Asian black bears in recent years, several Japanese municipalities have implemented digital surveillance systems to locate bears that venture into human-inhabited areas.
The tracking system in the city of Akita had precisely alerted to four sightings on Friday in the town, with around 300,000 inhabitants.
Experts believe that the growing number of encounters with bears in Japan is due to the effects of climate change, which leads to a scarcity of fruits and insects they usually feed on, pushing them to venture into populated environments in search of food.