TOKYO, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- A man was attacked by a bear early on Friday inside a public restroom near a train station in Gunma Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, police said.
Police said the man was mauled by the bear, about 1 to 1.5 meters in length, when he was about to exit the restroom in front of the Numata Station in the early hours of Friday.
The 69-year-old security guard saw the bear looking inside the toilet from the entrance and fell on his backside but fought back by yelling and kicking, causing the bear to flee the scene, police said.
The man, sustaining a slight injury to his right leg, rushed to a nearby police box to report the incident at around 1:20 a.m. local time.
Operations at the train station, centrally located in Numata City, had already finished for the day at the time of the incident.
Police are patrolling the area, urging residents to refrain from going out unless it is absolutely necessary and to secure all doors and windows in their residences.
Japan is battling a spate of bear attacks in 2025 amid a surge in sightings of and encounters with bears. In the seven months through October, the number of bear attack victims across Japan totaled 196, a record high for the same period in the past five years, including 12 fatalities, according to the Environment Ministry's preliminary figures. ■
