Bosnian shepherd strangles bear bare-handed

Belgrad, May 26 (IANS/RIA Novosti) A 48-year-old shepherd in Bosnia and Herzegovina strangled a brown bear bare-handed after the wild animal attacked him, Bosnian television reported.

Blazo Grkovic, from the village of Vrba, was tending a flock of sheep on a meadow in Volljak, when the bear assaulted him. Though the shepherd had a small axe with him, he had no chance of using it.

"At one moment the bear grasped my hand and I choked it by the throat with the other hand until the animal fell down," Grkovic told journalists.

After the vicious encounter with the animal, the bleeding shepherd managed to cover a distance of several kilometres along a mountainous path before calling an ambulance.

Doctors diagnosed multiple injuries to shepherd's hands, legs and head caused by the bear's jaws and paws. Grkovic will remain hospitalised for over a week, they said.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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