A hiker has died in Greece after a brown bear reportedly pushed him off a cliff above a 2,600-foot ravine. The victim, Christos Stavrianidis, was hiking with his friend Vassilis Kioroglou through the Frakto Forest near the city of Drama, where Stavrianidis had previously found the remains of a crashed Greek warplane, on Monday when they came upon what Kioroglou described as a "huge" bear. "I heard Christos shout, 'Come, there's a bear!'" Kioroglou told ERT, per the Greek City Times. Kioroglou said his dog, a Belgian Malinois, stepped between himself and the large bear, which "bought me a few seconds to use pepper spray. The bear then turned to Christos, pushed him hard, and threw him off a cliff."
A rep for the wildlife group Arcturos said it didn't appear that the bear had attacked the hikers but was likely defending itself from a perceived threat, per CBS News. The deceased hiker "fell into the ravine, and the other took refuge in a tree," said the leader of a volunteer rescue team. Authorities later confirmed Stavrianidis died. His body was removed from the ravine on Tuesday, per the City Times. He'd been through this section of forest before. Last August, he discovered the remains of a Hellenic Air Force fighter plane at the "extremely inaccessible" site, where it crashed during World War II, per the City Times. He'd been pushing for better accessibility to the site since the discovery, per CBS. (More Greece stories.)
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