Human flesh, hair found inside Japan bear after fatal attacks

Human flesh and hair were found inside the stomach of a bear suspected of attacking at least one of four people in northern Japan who apparently died from such assaults, officials said on Tuesday.

Bear attacks on humans are not unusual in mountainous Akita prefecture on Japan's main island of Honshu, but fatal ones are, with only eight tallied from 1979 through last year.

Last month, however, three men – two in their seventies and one in his sixties – died in apparent attacks while harvesting bamboo shoots in three separate incidents in a mountain forest.

The body of a fourth victim, a badly mauled 74-year-old woman, was discovered on Friday. The woman had reportedly been picking wild plants.