Russian man ‘bites off brown bear’s TONGUE to escape savage mauling by half-ton beast’

A RUSSIAN man claims to have fought off a brown bear by biting off its tongue.

The half-ton predator ambushed and mauled Nikolay Irgit, 35, in the mountainous Tuva region in southern Siberia, police said.

The 35-year-old – who was searching for deer and elk antlers to sell on the black market with two friends – said: “When I saw the bear, at first I froze in horror.

"I didn’t have any weapons, not even a knife.

“I began to scream, I thought it would not attack. But the bear charged towards me.

“I managed to punch him in the face, but he pounced and knocked me off my feet.”

A police report details the moment Nikolay is said to have turned the tables.

SAVAGE ATTACK

Cops said: “The bear knocked him down and started biting.

“At the moment when the bear clasped his teeth on Irgit's face, he managed to bite off a part of bear's tongue, which is why the bear stopped the attack and fled.

“After coming to his senses a bleeding Irgit called his friends to come and help.”

Nikolay’s two pals made a makeshift stretcher and carried their injured friend to the nearest village.

He was then moved 95 miles to a major hospital in regional capital Kyzyl.

A gruesome picture shows him with his head bandaged and facial wounds.

HORRIFIC WOUNDS

Doctors said Nikolay suffered serious claw and bite wounds to his face, scalp, arms and abdomen.

Despite his injuries, he is expected to fully recover.

The brown bear, which fled into the forest and has not been found, will be hunted and killed because it attacked a human.

Despite his miraculous escape, Nikolay will be fined for illegally searching for antlers without a licence.

They are also suspected of starting a fire in a restricted forest zone.

In March, Californian jogger Travis Kauffman claimed he choked a mountain lion to death with with his bare hands – but the animal turned out to be an orphaned cub.

The little cat weighed about 34 to 40 pounds when alive, according to the final necropsy report conducted by a Colorado Parks and Wildlife veterinarian.

Officials believe the animal was male, though it was hard to tell, since its sex organs seemed to have been scavenged, reports the New York Post.

But Kauffman initially claimed that he battered the beast with a rock and choked it to death during a ten-minute “wrestling match”.

Source: Read Full Article