Climbers attacked by bear - Animal pushes one off cliff

The incident occurred at noon on Monday (9/6), when the two friends, experienced hikers-climbers and residents of Drama, together with their dog, attempted to approach a point where an abandoned World War II warplane is located. During their hike, they were suddenly attacked by a bear.In their attempt to escape, one of the two ran towards a ravine and fell after being pushed by the bear to a depth of approximately 150 meters (the ravine is 1,000 meters deep). The second climber managed to be saved after using pepper spray. When the danger was removed, he notified the authorities via the emergency number 112.

After many hours of search by EMAK rescue crews, the climber was located early Tuesday morning (10/6) in the ravine at a depth of approximately 150 meters.

As the mayor of Paranesti, Anastasios Kayaoglou, told ERTNews, there is now visual contact with the missing climber and an effort is underway to reach him. However, his condition remains unknown, with rescuers reporting that it is an inaccessible spot with dense foliage.

The shocking description of the second climber 

Mr. Dimitris Kioroglou, the climber who climbed the tree, spoke to the SKAI television station regarding the incident: "We came for a day trip to tour the Frachtos forest. We went and visited an old airplane that was recently found. We arrived at the spot, saw it, took pictures and made our way back.

On the way back, the other climber (Christos) approached a cliff to see the view. I didn't approach it, I kept walking, and while I hadn't gone even 10 meters, he calls out to me and says, "Dimitris, come and see a bear". I turn back and tell him I don't see anything and he calls out to me a second time. I enter a cluster of fir trees that were very close to each other, to go "sharp" and at that moment I see a huge bear at 2-3 meters, which attacks me. First it went to Christos, he sprayed it with pepper spray and then it came to me irritated. I was surprised, I didn't expect something like that, because I imagined that the bear was 50-100 meters away and not that close. The dog intervenes between me and the bear, which delays it for 2-3 seconds, I manage to take out the spray, spray it and it turns back towards Christos. I assume that it had probably finished its own spray, and it gave it a push and ran off into the cliff. It fell on him with force".

Then Mr. Kioroglou described the movements he made after the climber fell into the ravine: "As soon as I heard him fall down, I shouted his name repeatedly, I tried to look down into the ravine, but nothing was visible. The bear left, but it didn't go far, it was somewhere around, as for the next two hours the dog was growling frequently, and it only grows when it feels threatened. I didn't see it, but the dog felt something."

When asked if he climbed the tree to save himself, Mr. Kioroglou pointed out: "I didn't climb the tree, I called 112 and 166 to give coordinates so they could find us, and I stayed at the spot because it's very difficult to find it again. In other words, if I left there I wouldn't know how to get back. I called friends of mine who knew the area so they could help the rescuers get to the place.