Two hikers’ walk in the forest of Fraktos in Drama ended in tragedy, with one climber spotted dead in a ravine after being attacked by a bear.

His friend, an eyewitness to what happened, described the attack frame by frame on camera, claiming the animal charged.

“Together with my friend Christos and we went on a day trip to the forest of Fraktos and visited the aircraft he had recently found, and went on our way back. At one point, near a peak, he went to see the view from above. I didn’t follow him because I didn’t feel the need, I went 10 meters ahead and I heard him shouting ‘Dimitri, come see a bear’,” said the friend of the dead climber.

He then described how he went towards the cliff “because I imagined the bear was 100 meters away” and then “he called out to me again, “Dimitri, come see a bear.”

“I get closer, between some fir trees to pass through, and I hear something happening. The bear was six or seven metres away from Chris. He attacked, he sprayed, it ran away, came at me, and I saw it two or three metres in front of me. I didn’t even have time… I was scared out. The dog jumps in front of me and surprises me for two or three seconds, then she fights back. She stood up and lunged forward like this. I catch up, get out the pepper spray, spray her, and she takes off,” he said.

According to him, the bear went towards his friend, and gave him one on the cliff, knocking him over. He pushed him, now with his legs, with his body, however, she gave him one and left as if he didn’t exist. I think he pushed him.”

“It was a huge bear, the first time I’ve ever seen one. It was a very large adult male, I believe,” he said.

Describing the attack, he said: “At the time it was attacked, I heard an ‘oh, oh, oh’, it falls first time it goes ‘ahh’, it falls second time it goes ‘ahh’ again, and then I didn’t hear anything. The bear, then I don’t remember what happened, I have a memory blank on that part, where it left from, and why it left.”

“I was among the fir trees because I thought it was a good point of defense. I was calling out to see if it would respond and give some sign of life, nothing. I called 166, 122, to give coordinates. I called friends because it was a rough area, you can’t approach it’s the cliffs and from certain points you can go,” he said.

Dead climber

The climber who fell off the cliff Sunday afternoon was located unconscious shortly before 9 this morning. According to information from the ambulance, a doctor who examined him immediately after rescuers pulled him out of the ambulance, pronounced him dead.

Earlier, a Super Puma helicopter managed to approach the spot where the climber had been taken by the EMAK men.

The climber was picked up by an ambulance and was initially taken to the military airport of Chrysoupoli, from where he was picked up by an ambulance to be transported to the Kavala Hospital.

A total of 37 firefighters of the EMAK participated in the operation to locate and transport the climber.

On Monday, rescuers who arrived at the scene of the incident found the climber’s friend alive.