Bear attack victim rescued from remote Alaskan shack after helicopter spots 'help me' roof message
A bear attack victim who was nightly harassed by the animal following the incident has been rescued from a remote Alaskan shack after a helicopter crew spotted the words 'help me' written on its roof.
The man suffered a leg injury and bruising to his torso after the attack and was only found days later by the US Coastguard on a flight from Kotzebue to Nome.
The victim was seen waving his hands by the flight crew on the helicopter, who found the man with his leg bandaged and the door of the shack ripped from its hinges.
“We don’t really come across people in the middle of nowhere,” said co-pilot Lieutenant AJ Hammac.
“He was kind of struggling. When we came around, he was on his hands and knees waving a white flag.
“He definitely looked like he had been out there for a while,” he said.
It transpired he had been attacked a few days previously and the bear returned to harass him for a number of nights afterwards until the rescue.
In the original attack, the bear dragged the man down to the river but the victim managed to escape its grasp.
The US Coastguard took the man to to be treated for his injuries at Nome, a port near the Bering Strait.