From: Anchorage Daily News

JUNEAU — A “crack” in the brush. A split second to turn and see the bear. Another second to click the gun’s safety off. That’s all the time Dr. John Raster had before the brown bear attacked him.

“I screamed and fired a shot into the air,” he said. “It was already on me and the gun was still pretty much slung around my shoulder. He bit me and started scratching me and pushed me down into the water.”

The Juneau doctor had been walking alone Friday morning along a stretch of beach on Admiralty Island, just a few hundreds yards from a cabin where he stayed with a hunting party. He was carrying a Lumix digital camera to take pictures of the sunrise when he heard the bear take a step in the woods, about 20 yards to his left.

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