NOVOKUZNETSK, September 20 (RIA Novosti) – Bears in the streets and tough cops: Two stereotypes about Russia came together in the coal-mining region of Kemerovo this week, when local police marched a trio of hungry bear cubs from a central town square back into the nearby woods.
A local woman in the town of Berezovsky spotted one cub late Thursday “calmly strolling down the street, looking for food in the garbage bins,” according to a statement from regional police. Five teams of officers soon arrived at the spot, only to find three bear cubs in the courtyards of nearby buildings, it said.
Police cordoned off the area and then “escorted the uninvited guests into the woods. They followed the bear cubs in their patrol cars and lit the way with their headlights. The trip took more than an hour,” the statement said.
The police speculated that the cubs may have been the orphans of a female bear fatally hit by a freight train in July on a nearby tract of railroad.
