Tourist freezes as wild bear bites at his leg before he flees in terror when the beast lunges at him on Romanian highway

By SABRINA PENTY, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER Published: 15:23, 30 July 2026 | Updated: 15:26, 30 July 2026 This is the moment a tourist stayed completely still as a wild bear bit at his leg in the Romanian mountains.  Footage filmed from a nearby car on the scenic Transfăgărășan Highway on Monday showed the tourist remaining calm as a bear cub ran out of the bushes and onto the road where the man was standing.  The video shows how the bear reluctantly approaches the man, before it edges closer to him and starts sniffing and biting at his leg.  The man manages to stay still until a car drives towards the bear in an attempt to scare it away.  However, the animal, unfazed by the vehicle, suddenly lunges at the man standing on the road, prompting him to run towards his vehicle, uninjured.  The video has since gone viral online, with several social media users commenting on the man's reaction to the bear.  Several wondered whether the man, who appeared to be on his phone, was too distracted to notice the animal, with some joking that he had the 'survival instinct of a potato.' Others, however, praised him for staying still, saying that choosing not to move away avoided provoking an aggressive reaction from the bear.  A tourist stayed completely still as a wild bear bit at his leg The bear approaches the man, who remains completely still 'If he had moved, the bear would have run after him. He tried to stay completely still. If he had run, the bear would have chased him and might have attacked him. He acted smartly,' one social media user commented.  Meanwhile, others criticised the fact that the driver in the car from which the video was filmed did not do anything initially to alert the man or to scare the bear away.  The incident comes a month after a tourist suffered serious injuries after he was violently mauled by a wild bear in Romania's Carpathian mountains. Georgi Bizhev, a Bulgarian holidaymaker, was driving along a mountain road near the Vidraru Dam in central Romania in June when he decided to stop after spotting a mother bear and her cub. The 46-year-old tossed food scraps at the animals and began taking pictures and videos of them when the mother bear suddenly launched a ferocious attack on him. Footage taken by an onlooker shows the adult bear lunging into Bizhev's car window. In a separate video taken by Bizhev, the mother bear is shown clawing at the tourist as he screams for help. The animal smashed a window and tried to drag the tourist out of his vehicle, according to local reports. Bizhev suffered serious bite wounds to his left arm. He said the bear clawed and bit him as he raised his arm to shield his face and neck. He said a seatbelt helped save him from worse injury as other drivers honked and shouted to scare the aggressive animal away. He later said: 'I saw the bear's ears prick up and it jumped at me. 'It tried to grab me and pull me out of the car.' An onlooker tried to scare the bear away by driving towards it  The bear suddenly lunges at the man, but he managed to run to safety unharmed Romanian emergency services responded after Bizhev alerted guards at the dam. Officials stressed that the mother bear was likely protecting her cub. The stretch of road is a famous 'bear pass' where tourists frequently stop to observe and feed wildlife. Bizhev, a sports official and former football club president, said such encounters are commonplace on the route, with food sold at stops, although he acknowledged feeding bears is inappropriate. He admitted: 'I entered its environment, it was a mistake for which I paid.' He has since returned to Bulgaria for further treatment. Romanian authorities have urged tourists not to approach or feed bears, which are protected but increasingly habituated to humans across the country.