A wandering bear that scared residents of a Japanese city just north of Tokyo has been captured after several days of panic during which all schools were closed. The bear was first spotted on Saturday near a park in Utsunomiya, a city north of Tokyo with a population of half a million. City officials have said they received dozens of reports of bear sightings in the following days, including near a library, schools and a community center, causing them to close all city-run schools Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday afternoon, the bear was found on a private property and shot by a veterinarian with a tranquilizer gun, city official Ryuhei Irie said. Nobody was injured.

A bear has injured four people in a Japanese residential area in the latest case of attacks by the animals in the region. Two men who work for Fukushima Steel Works and a third employee of another company in northeastern Japan suffered minor injuries Tuesday. The bear also attacked a woman who lives in the area. The Fukushima fire department says none of the injuries are life-threatening. Japan’s Environment Ministry says 13 people were killed in more than 230 attacks by bears nationwide in 2025. Experts say the encroachment has occurred in a region with a rapidly aging and declining human population that has few people trained to hunt the animals.