Sambalpur, Jan. 4: Three persons, including two women, have been killed by a wild bear inside a forest near Balipata village, around 45km from the Deogarh district headquarters town.

The deceased have been identified as Gomati Jhankar, 38, Kuntala Jhankar, 35 and Chaitanya Sahu, 38. Local residents are terrified because the killer bear is yet to be captured.

Police said Gomati and Kuntala had gone to the nearby forest to collect minor forest produces on Thursday. But, they did not return home. Next day, their family members and some villagers, including Chaitanya Sahu, entered the forest to search for them. A wild bear attacked them there. The villagers managed to flee, but Chaitanya could not escape and climbed up a tree. But the bear managed to reach him and killed him.

After this incident, the villagers suspected that the bear had also killed the two women.

Forest officials rushed to the area to capture the bear and find the bodies. But they could not retrieve the bodies on Friday. The forest officials of Deogarh, along with a tranquillising team from Rourkela and police, entered the forest today and found the three bodies.

Deogarh collector Shyam Sundar Nayak said: “The bodies have been retrieved and will be sent for autopsy. However, the bear is yet to be located. The forest officials are there inside the forest.”

“After the bear is captured, a test will be conducted to ascertain the reason behind it becoming violent,” said Nayak.