Mountain lion kills man in Northern California in first fatal attack in state in 20 years

One man was killed and another injured in a cougar attack in a remote region of northern California west of Lake Tahoe, officials said. It was the first fatal attack of its kind in the state in 20 years.

An 18-year-old man called 911 after 1 p.m. Saturday to report that he and his brother had been attacked in Georgetown, a small town north of Placerville, California, according to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office.

The man who alerted authorities suffered “traumatic injuries to his face” and was separated from his brother during the attack, officials said. He was taken to a nearby hospital.

Sheriff’s officers and paramedics searched for the brother and found a mountain lion crouched on the ground next to a man, authorities said. Officers fired shots “to scare the mountain lion away so they could assist the man.” But the unidentified 21-year-old man was dead.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the El Dorado County Trapper were dispatched to the area. They found the mountain lion “and killed it,” according to a press release.

How many fatal mountain lion attacks have there been in recent years?

Before Saturday’s attack, there had been only three fatal attacks by cougars on humans in California since 1994, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said. The most recent of those three attacks involved a 35-year-old cougar that was fatally injured in Whiting Ranch Regional Park in Orange County in 2004.

The last fatal mountain lion attack in El Dorado County occurred in 1994, when a 40-year-old woman was killed at Auburn State Recreation Area.

According to authorities, puma attacks are rare, and most documented encounters between the big cats and humans do not end in death.

5-year-old boy attacked while walking

Last year, a five-year-old boy was attacked by a mountain lion while walking with his mother and grandparents near Half Moon Bay, California, a beach town south of San Francisco.

In that incident, the mountain lion lunged at Jack Trexler and pinned him to the ground. The boy’s mother attacked the animal, which released her son and ran away, according to the boy’s father. The attack occurred near a farm where the family lives in Half Moon Bay.

The boy was treated for cuts and scratches on his face and body, as well as a fracture near his eye.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mountain lion attack kills California man, injures brother