Narrow escape from bears for visitors at Chinese safari park
First it was tigers and now it’s bears – but this time nobody was hurt in a close shave with nature.
A carload of visitors to a Beijing wildlife park had a narrow escape on Sunday afternoon when a black bear tried to claw its way inside the vehicle, according to an online account of the incident.
The incident comes less than a year after a tiger attacked a mother and daughter after they left their car at the same park, leaving the mother dead and her daughter severely injured.
A witness to Sunday’s incident, who would only identify herself by her surname “Wang”, said several bears were near the car when one tried to reach inside through the rear window of the hatchback as it was driving through the Badaling Wildlife World park.
The window was partially wound down but Wang said via her Weibo microblog that a child was in the back seat at the time.
In photos Wang posted online, two bears can be seen standing on their hind legs next to the car.
In one of the photos – taken from a vehicle behind the hatchback – a warning sign is visible.
“Treasure Life, do not leave the car,” the sign read.
Another sign taken outside the gates of the enclosure tells visitors to close the windows and lock the doors of their vehicles.
Wang said the car did not drive away until park staff told the driver to do so over a loudspeaker. By then the bears had surrounded the car for around one minute, Wang said.
“People really should stick to the rules. Those signs were all over the park,” Wang said.
The Badaling Wildlife World park could not be reached for comment.
