In a rare incident in Hamburg, a wolf attacked a woman in a bustling shopping district before being retrieved from a lake in Germany’s second-largest city. This marks the first recorded wolf attack since the species made a comeback in Germany in 1998.
According to the fire service, the injured woman was promptly transported to a hospital in Hamburg following the unusual event on Monday evening, as reported by the German news agency dpa.
Details about the woman’s condition were unavailable as of Tuesday, and police have not disclosed where on her body she was bitten. The cause of the attack remains unknown.
The incident occurred in a commercial area near the Altona station, situated to the west of Hamburg’s city center.
On Monday night, police reported that officers managed to extract the wolf from the Binnenalster lake in central Hamburg. This followed multiple sightings of the animal in the area and beyond.
Reports from local media indicate that the wolf was subsequently relocated to an enclosure on the city’s outskirts.
Officials believe itâs likely that the wolf involved was the same one that was sighted in Blankenese, an outer suburb of the city, over the weekend.
Experts believe that the animal is a young wolf searching for a territory of its own that accidentally wandered into the city.
Hamburgâs regional government noted that wolves generally avoid contact with people and dogs, and the unusual urban environment would be very stressful.
Germanyâs Federal Agency for Nature Conservation said it was the first time a person was known to have been attacked by a wild wolf since the animals reappeared in the country after a 150-year absence nearly 30 years ago, dpa reported.
Wolf attacks on livestock in Europe have been a growing concern for farmers for years, however. Last year, the European Parliament voted to change wolvesâ status from âstrictly protectedâ to âprotected.â
Last week, the German parliament gave final approval to legislation making it easier to shoot wolves that kill or wound livestock.
