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A grizzly bear attack involving students in Bella Coola on British Columbia\u2019s Central Coast has left two people critically injured and two others seriously hurt, according to emergency officials. <\/p>\n
B.C. Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) says seven additional people were treated at the scene but did not require transport to hospital. <\/p>\n
BCEHS said it received a call at 1:46 p.m. PT Thursday about an \u201canimal attack\u201d on a trail near Highway 20. Two ambulances and a community paramedic responded. <\/p>\n
In a statement posted on Facebook, the B.C. Conservation Officer Service (BCCOS) said conservation officers are on scene with RCMP and have ordered residents to stay out of the forested and river area near the 4 Mile area until further notice.<\/p>\n
Officials say public safety is the priority as they assess the situation.<\/p>\n
RCMP North District Cpl. Madonna Saunderson confirmed police received reports of the attack around 1:30 p.m. PT Thursday and that it was reported students were involved, though she said officers didn’t know the age or gender of the students. <\/p>\n
A Facebook post from Acwsalcta School \u2014 an independent school run by the Nuxalk Nation in Bella Coola, which is about 700 kilometres northwest of\u00a0Vancouver \u2014 says the incident involved members of its school community. The school announced it will be closed Friday due to \u201cthe bear incident.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to know what to say during this very difficult time. We are so grateful for our team and our students,\u201d the post said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear whether both students and staff were involved. CBC News has reached out to the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are devastated for the individuals and families impacted by the bear incident,\u201d Nuxalk Nation Chief Samuel Schooner said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll individuals involved are receiving medical support and our priority is to ensure that they are safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a social media post, the Nuxalk Nation said the animal remained on the loose after the attack and warned community members not to “go looking for it.”<\/p>\n
“It is understandable if you are feeling stressed and scared,” it said, adding that several transportation options are being offered so locals can avoid walking in the area. <\/p>\n
Jayme Kennedy, the chair of the Central Coast Regional District, which includes the community of Bella Coola, said in a statement that she was sending “heartfelt support to the Nuxalk Nation” and all who have been touched by the bear attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We are all feeling devastation as we try to understand the magnitude of the attack and navigate what has happened.”<\/p>\n
She said the regional district would be available to help in any way it could.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-296875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}