Washington, Europe Brief News – A mother and her one-year-old son were killed in a rare polar bear attack in an isolated Alaska Native village in the northwest US.
The fatal attack happened on Tuesday in Wales, a coastal community that is no stranger to co-existing with polar bears.
The mother was later identified as 37-year-old Valerie Theoret.
The polar bear had chased several residents before another community member shot and killed it, authorities said. The attack occurred near a school in Wales.
Poor weather and a lack of runway lights at the Wales gravel airstrip prevented Alaska State Troopers and officials from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game from arriving in Wales on Tuesday after the attack. Attempts were being made again on Wednesday.
When asked to describe the mood in Wales on Wednesday, Dawn Hendrickson, the school’s principal, called it “traumatic”.
Classes were cancelled after the fatal attack. “The students are with their families,” Hendrickson said. Counselors were being made available to students.
Like many far-flung Alaskan villages, the predominantly Inupiaq community of roughly 150 people organises patrols when the bears are expected in town, from July through early November, before the sea ice forms and bears head out on the frozen landscape to hunt seals.
