A lone black bear that managed to shut down nearly 100 schools in a Japanese city of about 500,000 people has been captured. Utsunomiya, roughly 80 miles north of Tokyo, closed all 94 of its primary and secondary schools after the animal was repeatedly spotted over the weekend, including on CCTV sprinting past two pedestrians downtown, per the Guardian. Residents were told to lock their doors and windows and head for the nearest building if they spotted the bear.
After drones were deployed to search for the bear from the sky, a city official says the animal was finally spotted on Tuesday on a private plot of land and shot with a tranquilizer gun by a local veterinarian, per the AP. Officials say they think only one bear was behind the recent sightings, but they’re investigating further. Japan has logged a record 50,000 bear sightings this year, mostly in the northeast, and encounters are edging closer to Tokyo, per the Guardian. Multiple attacks have been reported in the mountains, taking place while people were foraging for wild plants, per CNN.