Polar bear attacked and killed a woman and a boy in Alaska

A woman and a child were killed on Tuesday when they were attacked by a Polar Bearin an isolated community on its western coast Alaskaan extremely rare event.

According to the initial investigation, the bear entered Wales, a coastal aboriginal village in the Bering Strait, and “chased several residents,” police said. “He attacked and killed a woman and a boy” and was then killed by a local resident.

Officers and specialists will be on the scene “weather permitting,” state police added in a statement.

The Anchorage daily news, Alaska’s largest newspaper, reported that the last fatal polar bear attack in the state was in 1990. According to the non-governmental organization Polar bear international, between 1870-2014 there have been a total of 73 attacks and fatalities 20 people. However, the frequency of attacks is increasing.

In Alaska, polar bears live exclusively on the far north and west coasts of the State. Climate change, due to which the ice islands, the natural habitat of polar bears, are melting, threatens this species with extinction.