Bear mauls trainer amid a Russian circus; causes ruckus in audience

A circus in Russia left the audience ruffled and frightened after a brown bear, amid an act, suddenly turned violent and mauled his trainer. In a video shared by RT, the giant bear could be seen pinning the trainer to the floor, causing panic amongst the audience, who filled the room with screams. The incident occurred in northwest Russia's Olonets town amid a circus that found no barriers between the audience and the stage. 

In the video, that is now viral, the brown bear after pushing the wheelbarrow as a part of the show, suddenly grabs on to the trainer and weighed him down on the floor. Following which the trainer's help came to his rescue by kicking the bear in an attempt to stop the mauling. RT reported that there were no serious injuries involved in the trainer or the bear. The bear is reportedly no more a part of the show.

Huge circus bear attacks trainer as ‘terrified’ families scramble to escape pic.twitter.com/AmWo4mMvXm https://t.co/HPQIIBGsBl

— Atlantide (@Atlantide4world)

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In a similarly terrible incident recorded in June this year, a lion suddenly pounced and attacked a circus trainer in front of a large audience in Ukraine circus. Hamada Kouta, the 32-year-old was mauled and thrown on the floor by the big cat in the middle of the act. According to reports, his arm, leg and back were mauled and clawed before the lion finally walked away. The incident took place during the a circus show called “Treasures of Egypt”. Luckily, he managed to push the lion off and get to his feet, which prompted the animal to move away and eventually leave the main performance area.

The circus trainer reportedly told local reports that he tried to resume the performance to help calm down the children who were screaming.  “I calmly called them back, because there were children in the audience,” he said. “The most important thing for me is to see children in the audience.”

Earlier in 2011, India had banned the use of lions, tigers, panthers, monkeys, bears, and bulls. Under the new notification, the use of all animals in circuses across the country will be banned.

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Here's a list of countries that have banned circuses using wild animals: 

• Austria
• Bolivia
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• El Salvador
• Estonia
• Greece
• Guatemala
• Ireland
• Israel
• Luxembourg
• Macedonia
• Malta
• Mexico
• The Netherlands
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Romania
• Scotland
• Singapore
• Slovakia
• Slovenia

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