Pär Sundström and his son Evert, 14, were out in the woods in Ljusdal on Monday. They were hunting for bear together with the family of dogs that were out for a run.
Suddenly a female bear came running straight towards them, says Evert in a video on his social media.
– The bear came running diagonally across an old forest road, it ran straight towards my father, who ended up on his knees and fired a shot at the bear, says Evert Sundström.
Evert flies on the bear
The family’s dogs had gotten between them and the bear – therefore father Pär only shot when the bear was directly above him. It’s the last thing he does before the bear’s jaws grab his face.
– Then he drops the gun on his side and the bear tears and eats the right side of my father’s face, he says.
Evert then acted quickly to save his father by flying at the bear with his fists.
– I come running and hit it with my right hand, then the bear comes and jumps on me and bites my hand and breaks my wrist in two, he says.
Pär managed to get up again, pick up his rifle and shoot at the bear.
– When it runs, dad shoots the bear a few times, so that it is properly dead, he says.
The injuries require surgery
Both were taken to hospital after the attack, today Evert has had to leave the hospital. Father Pär, whose injuries were more serious, is still being treated in hospital but the injuries are not life-threatening.
Mother Louise Backström writes in an SMS to TV4 Nyheterna that Evert is taking pain-relieving medicine to deal with the broken leg and that Pär has been transferred to the Academic Hospital in Uppsala to undergo surgery.
“He’s in pain, but he’s getting medication to take the worst of it away. Pär is not doing so well, he is in Uppsala now, surgery when the swelling has subsided a little”, she writes.
TV4 Nyheterna publishes Evert’s account of the incident with the family’s approval.