When a Japanese man was confronted by a snarling bear, he used his karate skills to save his life.
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Atsushi Aoki, 63, was fishing in a mountain creek when the 6-foot-3 Asian black bear attacked him. He was bitten and scratched repeatedly, including on his head.
“The bear was so strong, and it knocked me down," Aoki told Tokyo Broadcasting System. “It turned me over and bit me right here,” he said, pointing to his bandaged leg.
But instead of trying to outrun the bear, Aoki assumed a fighting stance with his right fist in front of him. Aoki poked at the bear’s eyes, and the animal ran away into the woods
“I thought it's either ‘I kill him or he kills me,’” Aoki told public broadcaster NHK.
The fisherman then got in his car and drove to a hospital in Gunma, northwest of Tokyo, where he was treated for injuries to his leg, arm and head.
"He drove himself to hospital, and he even remembered to grab the fish that he had caught," a local police officer told AFP.
Cox Media Group
