A MOTHER bear and her cub stopped traffic and caused panic yesterday in central Romania after they roamed through gardens in search of food and finally climbed the stairs of a four-storey building and broke on to the roof.
A rescue team tranquillised the mother after failing to steer her towards a neighbouring forest.
Residents had reported seeing the two bears clambering through suburban gardens in the district of Racadau in the city of Brasov.
Traffic
was stopped for two hours as a team of animal welfare officers tried to get the animals back to the wilderness.
"The bear cub was very small and could not keep up with its mum, and she did not want to go back to the forest without it," said Flavius Barbulescu, the head of the animal protection service.
The animals finally took refuge in a building, climbing the stairs to the attic, breaking a window and then clambering on to the roof. "That was when we decided to tranquillise the mother," Mr Barbulescu said.
Rescuers shot the bear with a dart.
Once asleep, they removed her and the cub from the roof and took the pair to the zoo in an operation shown live on TV.
Officials said the animals would be sent to a nearby bear reservation.
Brasov, some 95 miles northwest of Bucharest, is one of Romania's largest cities and a popular tourist destination.
Romania is home to about half of Europe's brown bears. Sightings are common, and the animals are often seen rummaging through waste bins in search of food.
The full article contains 274 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
