A GROUP of savage bears who are feared to have acquired a taste for human flesh have been rampaging in a town in Japan.
Residents of the peaceful island of Hokkaido have been grappling with fears over the "ninja bears" who have been attacking humans and devouring cattle.
For many years, the eastern part of the city was haunted by one huge beast of a bear called Oso18 who sparked terror in the region with his rampant attacks.
Local media called him a "ninja bear" after he successfully avoided all the traps authorities set to catch him.
Within just four years, the 7ft 3in beast had savagely attacked 66 cows near the towns of Shibecha and Akkeshi in eastern Hokkaido, of which 32 died.
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When authorities started to search for him, they discovered massive pawprints that he had left behind after the horror attacks.
The fearful animal was finally shot dead by a hunter last year, marking the end of his long reign of terror.
But just when there was a sigh of relief among the locals of the town after the beast died, similar attacks began to happen again.
And locals started to fear the return of a new Oso18.
So far, multiple attacks have been recorded where the beast once wreaked havoc.
And due to the similarity of the attacks - and locations - the "ninja moniker has now been passed on.
Last month, a giant black bear broke into a cattle shed and devoured all the cows inside.
Just three days later, another horror attack was witnessed in the rural area of Gunma province where an old couple were seriously injured after a huge wild bear stormed their house in the middle of the night.
However, locals were left shivering when a 64-year-old man in Akita province was killed by a bear while he was working on a farm.
A government officer in the town told All-Nippon News: "I have seen about 40 bears myself. Bears are everywhere.
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"Even if you set off firecrackers right next to them, they won’t run away. They just prowl around."
For many years, bears in Japan stayed in the wild and did not interfere with human lives much - except for just a few rare glimpses.
However, now - especially since the terror of Oso18 - these wild bears have been running amok and causing widespread destruction in the Japanese city while killing humans as well as cattle.
Although Bears largely consume a vegetarian diet, experts have begun to fear that these savage beasts have now acquired a taste for flesh after preying on wild deer who are growing in numbers due to the lack of hunting practices in Japan.
Yasushi Fujimoto, head of a hunting organisation, said: "The mountain is turning into a restaurant for bears, because of the remains left on the mountain after hunting.
"The lack of professional hunters, like park rangers in Alaska financed by the government, is a problem when it comes to controlling the number of bears."
In the last 12 months, 219 people had been attacked in Japan in 198 separate incidents by savage bears, while six people were dead, The Times reports.
It marked the highest number of attacks since the county began recording such incidents in 2007.
