A severely wounded man described as a “speaking mummy” has been rescued from a bear den where an animal had dragged him to eat, according to reports.
The man, named only as Alexander, was found by hunting dogs roughly one month after he was overpowered by the predator in Russia’s remote Tuva region, it has been claimed.
The emaciated man was rushed to hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken spine from his fight with the brown bear, say reports.
He told doctors a large predator had overpowered him.
“The bear preserved me as food for later,” he is reported to have said.
The footage has not been independently verified by the Mirror.
He drank his own urine to survive, he said.
Medics say it is a “miracle” that he is alive.
A group of Russian hunters claim to have found Alexander after their dogs barked and refused to move on from a bear den they passed in the forest in mountainous Tuva.
The region is favoured by Vladimir Putin for vacations.
The hunters checked inside the lair and saw what they believed was a human mummy - until they released he was alive.
“The man remembers his first name but not his age and was reportedly in the den for around one month - drinking urine to survive,” reported The Siberian Times.
A hospital video shows the bearded man opening his blue eyes and confirming his first name.
He was described as having “severe injuries and rotting tissue” from lying motionless for so long in the den.
“Local medics say they cannot explain how the man survived such injuries,” said the report.
The exact location where he was found has not been revealed, nor the name of the hospital where he was treated.
He was spoken to by medical staff in Russian rather than the local Tuvan language.
Brown bears are known to hide their prey and return to feast on it later.
