Fans are not permitted to attend activities at the forthcoming Olympic Games. But a local black bear appears to have missed the message. Hours before the opening pitch of the game, a black bear was reportedly spotted inside the Olympic Softball Stadium. Witnesses stated the animal was around three feet tall. They saw the bear twice near the Olympic Fukushima’s Azuma Sports stadium only hours before a match between Japan and Australia.
“A guard found a bear inside Azuma Sports Park early in the morning yesterday. We also received similar information this morning,” a spokesman for the Fukushima Police Department told AFP. According to AFP, the local media identified it as an Asian Black Bear.
According to CBS News, officers tried to flush the bear out of its hiding place by blaring high music and firing off firecrackers. Nothing, however, really worked.
“We couldn’t find or capture the bear, and while there won’t be any spectators at the stadium, we are on alert and searching for the bear around the site,” the spokesman said.
Japan defeated Australia 8-1 in the softball match. Later in the day, the United States defeated Italy 2-0.
This isn’t the first time a bear has played a role in a pre-Olympic event this summer. The animals are common across Japan. When they go into towns, they are famous to assault and even murder locals, prompting frenzied hunts.
A wild brown bear injured four people, infiltrated a military base, and interrupted flights at the local airport near Sapporo. It was before the cops killed him. The bear appeared on video by Japan’s national broadcaster NHK. It was climbing through a barbed-wire fence. The cops were trying to catch the bear before it was shot dead.