A forest worker in Slovakia has suffered several broken bones after an encounter with a brown bear on a remote trail.
The incident took place in a densely overgrown forest in the municipality of Kvacany, far away from inhabited areas, a spokeswoman for the state nature conservation organisation SOPSR told the news agency TASR on Thursday.
"The bear ran at the forest worker on a narrow forest path in steep terrain, and knocked him down" the spokeswoman said. The 35-year-old then fell down the slope and suffered broken ribs and bruises.
The Social Democrat parliamentary president Peter Pellegrini, who is running for the presidential election on Saturday, announced on Thursday evening that a special session of parliament would be convened on Tuesday, to discuss the recent increase in clashes between brown bears and humans.
"The state must first and foremost protect the lives and health of people and only then that of the predators," Pellegrini told the TASR agency.
On the weekend, a mushroom hunter and a hiker were attacked and injured by bears. In mid-March, a bear that strayed into the small town of Liptovsky Mikulas injured five people.