{"id":302839,"date":"2025-11-24T01:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T01:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/302839\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T01:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T01:58:10","slug":"rescuers-punched-and-kicked-grizzly-during-attack-says-nuxalk-nation-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/302839\/","title":{"rendered":"Rescuers \u2018punched and kicked\u2019 grizzly during attack, says Nuxalk Nation chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One teacher on crutches, a second adult with bear spray, and a third person who punched and kicked a grizzly despite serious injuries are being praised for their actions that saved a school group attacked by a bear near Bella Coola, B.C.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763808739_201_70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Four people, including children, were hospitalized Thursday after a <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/bear-attack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">bear attack<\/a> on students and teachers from the Nuxwalk First Nation while out on a school trip, near Acwalcta School east of the remote community.<\/p>\n<p>Seven others were treated on scene for their injuries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the kids were getting attacked, one of my cousins who had his skull ripped, ran towards the bear and jumped on it with his bare hands,\u201d said Noel Pootlass, a hereditary chief of the Nuxalk First Nation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe started punching and kicking it,\u201d Pootlass told Global News on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Pootlass said another teacher unloaded two cans of bear spray into the eyes of the animal, noting that it \u201cnever even fazed it, didn\u2019t do anything to the bear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763808740_130_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n<p>Get the day&#8217;s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n<p>Pootlass said a third teacher then got involved in rescue efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dAnother lady, a teacher with crutches, was whacking it, hitting it (in the) eyes, in the face, in the head, for minutes and then the bear finally took off,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>He added that several students escaped the attack but were injured while running away from the bear.<\/p>\n<p>Three additional British Columbia Conservation Officer Service (BCCOS) officers were dispatched to Bella Coola on Saturday, joining five officers already on location, tracking the bear and establishing a clearer picture of how the attack unfolded.<\/p>\n<p>The RCMP is also involved with helping BCCOS track the animal, with the use of aerial support.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11539565\/mark-carney-federal-government-alberta-pipeline-deal\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763949490_17_759589a2c9af1eafde06df421c69031eba91c201b98c5163b844ee0d71bfb54e.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tCarney says \u2018constructive\u2019 talks ongoing with Alberta about oil pipeline\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11536947\/lost-canadians-law\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763949490_123_Parliament-flag-Canada.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Lost Canadians\u2019 legislation is now law, aims to fix citizenship rule\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Authorities have urged residents to to avoid the Four Mile area, stay indoors and not search for the bears themselves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can appreciate people want to be involved but this is a fluid and dangerous situation,\u201d said Inspector Kevin Van Damme of the BCCOS.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the safety of residents and our officers, please avoid the area and allow them space to do their work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m amazed by the heroism and the bravery they had to protect the kids,\u201d Pootlass said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of them had a 100 stitches, fractured shoulder, fractured elbow, fractured ankle,\u201d Pootlass said, adding \u201cit\u2019s amazing none of them were killed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nuxalk First Nation said it is taking steps to ensure those affected have access to medical and spiritual healing available to them.<\/p>\n<p>Bella Coola is in the Central Coast region of B.C., about 330 km southeast of Prince Rupert as the crow flies.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One teacher on crutches, a second adult with bear spray, and a third person who punched and kicked&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[69211,135709,49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-302839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-bear-attack","tag-bella-coola","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302839","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=302839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}