Bear Mauls Man Who Climbed Into Enclosure

A man was mauled in front of onlookers Friday after climbing into the bear enclosure at the San Diego Zoo, police said.

The 28-year-old man, who suffered injuries to his groin and abdomen in the attack by the adult Manchurian brown bear, was listed in serious condition at Mercy Hospital.

A police spokesman said the man had “prior psychiatric problems” and lived at a residential care facility in San Diego. He was to undergo psychiatric evaluation, police said.

“He told us that the bears had motioned for him to join them. That was his explanation for jumping in the enclosure,” said police spokesman Bill Robinson.

Witnesses said the man clambered over the fence and plunged into an 11-foot-deep moat separating the bears from viewers.

When he emerged, “the bear sniffed him up and down and . . . took a chunk out of him,” a bystander told a San Diego TV station.

Spectators shouted in an effort to distract the bear and zoo workers used a fire hose to corral the animal. Robinson said police would seek a trespassing charge against the man.