A polar bear that chased residents around a small Alaska town attacked and killed two people before being shot t Tuesday, authorities said.
According to a dispatch by the Alaska Department of Public Safety, the attack occurred in Wales, a small community on the western tip of Alaska’s Seward Peninsula.
“Initial reports indicate that a polar bear had entered the community and had chased multiple residents,” the state Department of Public Safety wrote in its dispatch. “The bear fatally attacked an adult female and juvenile male – it was shot and killed by a local resident as it attacked the pair.”
The attack was reported to Alaska state troopers at 2:30 p.m. local time, according to the dispatch.
In a Wednesday update, the state Department of Public Safety identified the woman and boy as Summer Myomick, 24, of Saint Michael and her 1-year-old son Clyde Ongtowasruk.
Authorities said that next of kin have been notified.
According to the update, Tuesday’s attack occurred near a school.
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The state Department of Public Safety added that “poor weather conditions in the region and the lack of runway lights in Wales” prevented state troopers and officials with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game from making it to Wales on Tuesday. State troopers are continuing to try to fly to Wales on Wednesday, the dispatch said, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service has been notified.
USA TODAY reached out to the Alaska Department of Public Safety and state Department of Fish and Game early Wednesday morning for further information.
Wales is a small, predominantly Inupiaq town of less than 200 people just over 100 miles northwest of Nome.
According to Kawerak Inc., a nonprofit tribal consortium based in Nome, Wales is “one of the oldest communities in the Bering Strait region.” The Inupiaq name for Wales is “Kingigin, named for the mountain that rises above it,” the group notes.
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In Alaska’s recent history, fatal polar bear attacks have been rare. A polar bear killed a man in the village of Point Lay, farther north of Wales, in 1990. Biologists later said the animal showed signs of starvation, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
A 2017 study maintained that polar bear attacks around the world are very rare – but linked “increased concern for both human and bear safety” to predictions of higher numbers of “nutritionally stressed” bears spending more time on land near people because of the loss of their sea ice habitat. Alaska scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey have similarly pointed to significant declines in sea ice that polar bears depend on.
Contributing: The Associated Press
