Skier in lucky escape after being chased by brown bear down slope

MOSCOW -- A skier in Romania had a lucky escape when he was chased by a brown bear down the slopes this week with onlookers saying the skier’s quick thinking probably saved his life.

Video of the dramatic moment at the Predeal mountain resort in Romania, where there have been multiple bear sightings in recent years, was captured by shocked eyewitnesses.

During the chase, onlookers tried to distract the bear by whistling and screaming but the skier was saved by his own ingenious maneuver.

“He did a pretty cool move, which is a really safe one when you want to get away from the bear,” Angel Somicu, who had spotted the bear an hour earlier along with another skier, Daniel Jenei, told ABC News. “He dropped his bag off, and, well, the bear was dragged towards the bag.”

Other dramatic video shot at the scene from a ski lift shows the bear chasing the skier down at speed before he eventually shook his tail.

The bear chase sparked panic amongst the skiers on the mountain, after the authorities informed them of the dramatic sighting.

“Ski patrol stopped us told us there was a bear at the bottom of the slope,” Jenei said. “All the people that were down there threw their skis down and ran from the slope.”

After the bear was scared away, the authorities have now reportedly promised to investigate the situation and relocate the bear to a safer area.

Local police told ABC News that they received three emergency calls about the bear being spotted at various points in the day.

“The skier did the right thing,” Ion Zaharia, a police spokesperson in Brasov, Romania, told ABC News. “The bear was distracted by things inside his backpack. We are considering to relocate the bear, who should be hibernating now, anyway, but in recent years, we have more bears confronting skiers in the winter."