A Town In Khakassia, Russia, Has Been "besieged" By Bears
- 23.09.2026, 14:25
The beasts are closing in from virtually all sides.
In Khakassia (Russian Federation), where a state of heightened alert was declared due to a rise in bear attacks on people, bears have “besieged” one of the cities, reported by Russian authorities.
The town in question is Abaza, located in the southern part of the republic, which has a population of over 11,000. “The taiga town is effectively under siege by bears—the animals have been spotted approaching from all sides,” said the deputy head of Khakassia Dmitry Buchenik. According to him, on the night of September 23, several animals were driven away; three others, one of which “was enormous,” were killed by hunters. Another bear, which had knocked down a fence around summer cottages, managed to escape.
The day before, the head of Khakassia Valentin Konovalov announced the decision to declare a state of heightened alert throughout the republic. “According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, there are 2,245 bears in Khakassia, 609 more than in 2022… 117 potentially dangerous bears have already been culled,” he said. Bear attacks on humans have recently been reported in about 10 regions of the Russian Federation—mainly in Siberia and the Far East. On Tuesday night, a bear killed an employee of a logging company in the Krasnoyarsk Krai. According to the regional office of the Investigative Committee, the animal attacked a 39-year-old man who was guarding equipment on the territory of the Epishinsky Forest District in the Yenisei District. The victim died at the scene.
On August 19, near the village of Artybash in the Altai Krai, a bear attacked a tent with two tourists inside, dragged a 29-year-old woman out of it, killed her, and buried her in the forest. In the Tomsk Region of the Russian Federation on September 20, the bodies of two men were found; they, too, had been mauled by a bear. As a result, mass gatherings and excursions were banned in several districts of the region until November 1. The issue of declaring a state of heightened alert is currently being considered. Bear incidents have also occurred in the Irkutsk, Amur, Kemerovo, and Novgorod Regions, as well as in Buryatia and the Kamchatka Territory.
Relevant agencies in the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts attribute the frequent appearance of bears in populated areas to a lack of food in the taiga, forest fires, and unauthorized landfills. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Natural Resources , Tatyana Aramileva, noted that there is virtually no natural food supply in Siberia this year. “Across the Siberian Federal District, everyone is reporting a complete crop failure for all types of food sources. That means there are no cedar nuts either. There are no hazelnuts, no berries, and no mushrooms. This means bears are going into hibernation practically unfed,” she explained.