A tragic wildlife encounter has left a 58-year-old woman dead after a brown bear attack in a remote forested mountain area of southeastern Poland, local authorities and the victim’s family have confirmed. The fatal incident unfolded near the small town of Płonna, located in the Bieszczady region – an area home to the vast majority of Poland’s small wild brown bear population – when the woman and her 27-year-old son were exploring the woodland separately.
Details of the attack emerged from accounts provided by the victim’s son, who was on a phone call with his mother when the encounter began. A firefighter who responded to the emergency told Polish news channel TVN24 that the son heard his mother scream “Bear, bear!” before the connection cut out abruptly. After raising the alarm, emergency teams set out for the remote site, but first responders faced significant delays: rough, uneven terrain and spotty mobile phone coverage slowed access to the area where the attack occurred.
Local emergency services spokesperson Paweł Giba confirmed that the first alert came in around 10:30 a.m. local time (8:30 a.m. GMT). By the time fire crews and police reached the woman, she had already succumbed to her injuries. Responders found she had suffered severe, extensive lacerations to the head, according to the on-scene firefighter.
Local police sergeant Anna Oleniacz offered a slightly different account to Polish news outlet Onet, saying the son had stepped away from his mother briefly moments before the attack. When he returned and found her injured, he immediately called for emergency support. The victim’s other son told TVN24 that the encounter was likely accidental: he believes his mother unknowingly stepped on the bear, which was resting on the forest floor, where its dark fur blended in with surrounding mounds of earth. “Once it hits, there’s no escape,” he told the network.
Investigators were on site by Thursday afternoon to document the incident and confirm the cause of death. Izabela Jurkowska-Hanus, district prosecutor for Sanok – which oversees the affected Bukowsko Commune – told TVN24 that as of Thursday afternoon, there was no evidence pointing to any cause of death other than the bear attack.
Local forestry officials confirmed that the mother-son pair had been in the forest to collect shed antlers, a common activity during the annual spring stag shedding season. Wojciech Jankowski, spokesperson for the Lesko Forest District where the attack happened, explained that spring is a time when brown bears, which have just emerged from months of hibernation, often venture close to residential areas and popular walking trails in search of food. “This was an unexpected encounter for both the bear and the human,” Jankowski noted.
In response to the fatal incident, Bukowsko Commune issued an urgent public warning via social media, urging local residents and visitors to avoid all nearby forest areas until further notice.
Poland is home to an estimated 100 wild brown bears in total, with roughly 90% of that population residing in the Bieszczady Mountains. Deadly conflicts between brown bears and humans are extremely rare in the country: the last recorded fatal bear attack in Poland dates back to 2014, local media reports confirm.