A circus bear trained to perform one of the oldest tricks of pushing a wheelbarrow around the stage had some other plans in mind.?
There was no barrier separating trainer and bear from the intimate crowd surrounding them.
And just as the bear was walking ahead, it suddenly turned around and mauled his trainer and people pulled out their cameras to record the horrifying attack.?
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A second trainer runs in and begins kicking the bear in an effort to distract him, but it continues to attack his helpless trainer.?
There were no barriers between the circus ring and the audience, and video of the incident shows people in the front rows of the crowd trying to run away with their kids.?
¡°People started to jump up. A panic started. Everyone grabbed their kids and started running,¡± eyewitness Galina Guryeva said, according to video obtained by NBC News.
According to the New York Times, Ruslan Solodyuk, the handler who was mauled by the bear told a Russian news website that the captive Bear was on his last performance tour and was suffering joint pain at the time of the attack.
Lyudmila Misnik, the manager of the circus, told Russian media that the bear had been irked by the flash from cellphone cameras, which spectators were told to turn off, reported the New York Times.
The Interfax news agency reported that authorities have opened a criminal investigation into whether the circus provided unsafe services, according to the Associated Press.