Get you up to speed: Bear prowls into garden and mauls woman, 66, to death | News World
A woman in her sixties, identified as Lyudmila T, was mauled to death by a brown bear outside her home in Verkhniy Kebezh, Krasnoyarsk region, Russia. Authorities confirmed she died at the scene from injuries consistent with a wild animal attack, and the bear had disappeared by the time police arrived.
Investigators are exploring the possibility that Lyudmila T was attacked outside after hearing a disturbance in her garden, although a definitive account has yet to be established. Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry reports that bear populations have significantly increased, with nearly 30 bear attacks recorded annually across the country, a statistic that correlates with the rising number of fatal encounters.
Russian authorities confirmed that the investigation into Lyudmila T’s death from a bear attack is ongoing, with officials examining how she came to be outside her home. The Natural Resources Ministry is reportedly considering measures to address increasing encounters between humans and bears, linked to food accessibility in urban areas.
What remains unclear — Investigators have not confirmed the exact sequence of events that led to Lyudmila being outside her home at the time of the attack.
Woman, 66, killed by brown bear outside her home in Siberia
Lyudmila was killed by a brown bear outside her house (Pictures: east2west news)
A woman in her sixties was mauled to death by a brown bear outside her home on the edge of a remote forest.
The victim, identified by Russian media only as Lyudmila T, was found around 50ft from her house in Verkhniy Kebezh, in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region. She’d died at the scene from injuries that investigators said were consistent with an attack by a wild animal.
Local reports said that she lived alone in a house on the edge of the village, close to dense woodland. She was due to celebrate her 67th birthday in little more than a month.
The bear is believed to have entered her garden during the night of September 16. The garden fence was found damaged, while scratches were discovered on the wooden wall beneath an open window.
A brown bear paws at the door of a home near Ust-Ilimsk in Russia’s Irkutsk region (Picture: east2west news)
Early accounts claimed that the animal had broken into the property and dragged the woman from her bedroom. Russia’s Investigative Committee confirmed that she had been killed near her home, but those people looking into what happened reportedly found no evidence that the bear had actually entered the house.
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Authorities believe that the 66 year-old was most likely attacked outside. One possibility being examined is that she heard a disturbance in the garden and went to see what was happening.
Emergency service sources quoted by Russian news agency TASS said that Lyudmila may have heard a noise in her garden and looked through the window, at which point the bear grabbed her.
Bear paw prints were found in Verkhniy Kebezh, the village where Lyudmila was killed (Picture: east2west news)
That account hasn’t been conclusively established and the investigation into the circumstances of her death is continuing. Officials have confirmed that a window had been left open for ventilation, but haven’t said precisely how Lyudmila came to be outside.
A neighbour was staying at the house on the night of the incident and was reportedly asleep on a mattress beneath the window. She wasn’t injured.
The fence around the front garden was also damaged, leading officials to suspect that the bear had climbed or forced its way onto the land. Photographs released from the scene show marks on the outside of the house.
Lyudmila’s body was found around 50ft from her home (Picture: east2west news)
The animal had disappeared by the time that police arrived. Hunters and officers were still searching for it when the authorities issued their initial account.
Verkhniy Kebezh is a small settlement in the Ermakovsky district of southern Krasnoyarsk in Siberia.
Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry said that around 20 to 30 bear attacks are recorded across the country in a typical year.
Officials have linked some encounters to animals finding easily available food in bins and open waste containers.
Russia has suffered a series of deadly encounters involving brown bears this summer (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Lyudmila T was the fourth person killed by a bear in the Krasnoyarsk area in just a matter of weeks.
There have been at least 12 bear-related deaths recorded across Russia since the beginning of 2026.
The country’s estimated brown bear population has also risen considerably over recent decades.
Ministry figures put it at approximately 307,900 in 2026, compared with about 130,000 in 1990.
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