Bear enters Japanese supermarket, pounces on customer, as nationwide toll reaches new high

Gunma Perfectural Police/TV Asahi via CNN Newsource

Tokyo — A bear rampaged through the sushi section of a supermarket in central Japan Tuesday, the latest in a series of attacks that have pushed this year’s death toll to a record high.

Two customers, ages 69 and 76, were injured when the bear, standing at 1.4 meters, crossed a parking lot before entering a supermarket in Numata City, about 80 miles north of Tokyo, according to local police. One was injured in the parking lot, the other inside the store.

Though this encounter wasn’t fatal, two bear attacks earlier this month took the death toll to 7 people so far this year, according to official data and local news reports – the highest annual toll since records began in 2006.

On Tuesday, around 40 people were doing their shopping at about 7:30 p.m. local time when the bear entered the premises and pounced on a shopper, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported. Two customers suffered minor injuries, police said.

Experts say bears are increasingly venturing out of their traditional habitats and into urban areas in search of food because climate change is interfering with the flowering and pollination of some of the animals’ traditional sources of food.

However, the supermarket store manager told NHK the bear didn’t seem interested in food.

“It seemed like it had entered the store, wanted to leave but couldn’t, and then became agitated,” he said.

As the manager tried to evacuate customers from the store, the bear ran out.

“I often heard news reports about bears entering stores, but I never imagined one would actually come to ours,” the manager told NHK.

Earlier this month, two deaths were attributed to bear attacks, taking the annual toll to 7. Then a body with scratch marks that appeared to be from a bear was discovered Wednesday morning in the northern Iwate prefecture, NHK reported, possibly pushing the death toll higher.

Tuesday’s attack was among a series of reported encounters between bears and humans across the country this week.

Also on Tuesday, a farmer in his 20s was attacked by a bear in the northern prefecture of Akita, days after a Spanish tourist was wounded by another animal while walking near a shuttle bus top at the Shirakawa Village, a popular destination in central Japan.

By Yumi Asada and Chris Lau