Bear attack victim 'was like a rag doll in his mouth,' rescuer says

A man who helped rescue another man from a bear attack in Sioux  Lookout has told CBC News the situation could have turned out much worse than it did.

A 29-year-old man was injured when a bear grabbed him as he was sleeping on a trail Wednesday night.

Jack Roy said he was one of three people who rushed to try to scare the animal away by yelling and throwing rocks.

“He had him by — sort of — the trunk.  I couldn't really tell whether it was the shoulder or the waist area,” he said.

“It was quite a large bear.  And he handled that fellow pretty effortlessly.  [He] was like a rag doll in his mouth … we all started hollering and yelling and throwing rocks, trying to scare the bear away, and he kind of stood there and looked at us for awhile.”

After one of the rescuers hit the bear with a rock, Roy said, it dropped the man and headed to the bush.

He estimated the animal weighed "around 400 pounds.”

The man who was attacked was treated in Sioux Lookout hospital and released.

On Friday morning, provincial police told CBC News they shot one bear in the community Thursday night.

There have been numerous bear sightings in Sioux Lookout in recent weeks.