A group of people ended up running for their lives after massive bears charged at them after they were being released back into the wild from cages.
According to reports, 6 Syrian brown bears were being released back into the wild when the incident happened.
The animals had been taken in blue steel cages to the mountainous Gara region of Northern Iraq by the American-Kurdish Cooperation Organization.
They did that to bring them back into the wild.
Each bear was lined up facing the snowy wilderness.
Police, reporters, and locals were present when the incident happened.
A member of the public opened the cages one by one before the bears darted off.
However, things got out of hand for a bit when one of the bears decided to charge at the crowd that had been eagerly watching the release.
In images that were shared with the public, one of the brown bears tried to get back into the cage as a handler stands on top.
Another snap shows the animal looking at the crowd.
In some of the images, people could be seen laughing at the bears and in some, the men were completely terrified.
Blend Prevani, who was in-charge of the of the operation, said that the animals were bought out of captivity by the AKCO (American-Kurdish Cooperation Organization).
Blend said:
The bears were brought from areas in southern Iraq. Some of them were bought, while the others were given to us by their owners.
There are very few Syrian Brown Bears left in the wild.
The releasing of the bears by the American-Kurdish Cooperation Organization was part of the attempt to reintroduce them in the wild.
Let’s hope they survive and repopulate in the wild so the numbers could increase.