Wolf bites woman in shopping area in Germany’s 2nd-biggest city

A wolf bit a woman in a shopping area in Hamburg before it was pulled out of a lake in Germany’s second-biggest city, authorities said, in what is believed to be the first such attack since wolves returned to the country in 1998.

The fire service said that the woman was taken to a Hamburg hospital after the unusual encounter on Monday evening, German news agency DPA reported. There was no immediate information on her condition on Tuesday, and police didn’t detail where she was bitten. It also wasn’t clear what led to the attack.

The attack took place in a shopping area near the Altona station, west of the city centre. Late on Monday evening, police said, officers hauled the wolf out of the Binnenalster lake in downtown Hamburg following calls alerting them to a sighting of the animal there and in other locations. Local media reported that it was taken to an enclosure on the outskirts of the city.

Officials believe it’s likely that the wolf involved was the same one that was sighted in Blankenese, an outer suburb of the city, over the weekend. Experts believe that the animal is a young wolf searching for a territory of its own that accidentally wandered into the city. Hamburg’s regional government noted that wolves generally avoid contact with people and dogs, and the unusual urban environment would be very stressful.

Germany’s Federal Agency for Nature Conservation said it was the first time a person was known to have been attacked by a wild wolf since the animals reappeared in the country after a 150-year absence nearly 30 years ago, dpa reported.

Wolf attacks on livestock in Europe have been a growing concern for farmers for years, however. Last year, the European Parliament voted to change wolves’ status from “strictly protected” to “protected.”

Last week, the German parliament gave final approval to legislation making it easier to shoot wolves that kill or wound livestock.