Bear attacks security guard in kitchen of Colorado hotel

A security guard was attacked by a bear in the kitchen of a hotel at Colorado’s Aspen ski resort.

The bear was later found and euthanized by state wildlife officers.

The attack happened around 11 p.m. Monday at the St. Regis, near the base of the Aspen Mountain ski runs. A clip from surveillance video shows the bear wandering into the empty kitchen. Thirty seconds later, a guard comes in and surprises the bear, which rears up on its back feet and shoves the man, who falls to the floor. The bear then flees.

The guard was taken to a hospital for treatment of scratches on his back.

Officers from Colorado Parks and Wildlife arrived around midnight. Their search found the bear near the hotel on Tuesday morning but they were unable to tranquilize it then because of public safety concerns.

They resumed the search Tuesday night and found a bear about a third of a mile from the hotel, in a small park in Aspen’s downtown area. The animal was determined by its markings to have been the one involved in the attack. Around 2 a.m. Wednesday, it was hazed into a tree, shot with a tranquilizer and then taken away to be euthanized.

The body was sent to the wildlife agency’s laboratory in Fort Collins where a full necropsy will be performed.