The bear walked through a cornfield and broke the windows of a dormitory and classroom at Raohe No. 3 Middle School in Heilongjiang province on Monday morning, the Heilongjiang Morning Post reported.
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CCTV footage shows the animal entering the school and roaming its halls for over an hour. An unidentified man is seen running to safety after he spots the animal.
Police and firefighters soon evacuated students and residents who lived near the school, before firing on the bear. The unsuccessful attempt angered the bear and officers made a decision to shoot it dead. “At this point, the bear had gone on a rampage”.
“The bear was roaring”, recalled one witness.
Since images of the dead bear surfaced on social media, many Chinese netizens have expressed sympathy for the animal.
Although police reportedly tried to tranquillise the animal at first, they missed their target since it was “hiding in a corner”, thereby making it “difficult to aim”, according to mainland reports.
There have been several bear sightings recently in Heilonjoang province, which shares a border with Russian Federation.
In August, a black bear, which was spotted swimming across the border river, was captured and released into the wild.
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However, the over-cutting of forests and rapidly expanding urban centres have reduced the bear’s natural habitat to less than one-fifth of what it was 70 years ago, putting isolated bear populations under intense environmental and genetic stress.
