Bear in Japan injures nine, shot dead at tourist area

A bear injured nine people at highway rest stop in central Japan before being shot dead in a souvenir shop, a fire-fighter said Sunday. The black bear seriously injured four men Saturday afternoon in Nyukawa, a small mountain town about 140 miles (230 kilometers) west of Tokyo, said fire-fighter Tomohiko Akano.
The 4-foot (1.3-meter) bear first attacked people at a bus parking lot and then entered a lodge where it was trapped in a souvenir shop and shot dead by a hunter, according to media reports. No one suffered life-threatening injuries in the attack, which lasted about an hour, reports said. A photograph from the scene showed the bear mauling a prone person in a parking lot while a man attempted to scare it off.