A mushroom picker in his 70s was found dead with his head and torso ripped away after a bear attack.
The elderly man in his 70s went missing after going into the woods of Iwate in Japan to harvest mushrooms.
Local authorities confirmed the man was dead after finding his body covered in scratch marks.
Police officers suspect the scratch marks were the result of a bear attack.
‘A man in his 70s who went missing after going into the woods to harvest mushrooms was found dead,’ a local police officer said on Friday.
‘We suspect he was attacked by a bear based on scratch marks.’
The suspected bear attack forms the latest in a string of incidents across Japan.
Bear attacks appear to be on the rise in the country after there were three incidents in the last week alone.
Police said another person was attacked by a bear after finding a dead body in a different part of Iwate on Wednesday.
The man’s head and torso were separated in the attack, according to local broadcaster TV Iwate.
On Tuesday, two men were injured after a bear walked into a supermarket in Gunma, north of Tokyo.
CCTV footage showed the moment the bear was seen roaming the aisle, causing frightened shoppers to flee the premises.
A Spanish tourist was attacked by a bear on Sunday at a bus stop in the scenic village of Shirakawa-go in central Japan.
The death toll from bear attacks rose to six in April this year, matching a record high seen in 2023, the environment ministry has said.
The increased bear attacks, as more wild bears roam residential areas of Japan, could be a result of a declining human population and climate change.
Among those fatal attacks was a woman in her 70s who died last week while picking mushrooms in northern Miyagi with her three friends, one of whom is missing.
Across Japan, 103 people suffered injuries caused by bears between April and September, according to the environment ministry.
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