The video shows a bear attack and a truck windshield being smashed

Police on the Japanese island of Hokkaido advised people to be careful after a brown bear attacked a light truck on a forest road.

Dashcam footage released by Hokkaido Prefectural Police shows two men driving along a forest road when they encountered a bear and her cub on opposite sides of the road. As the vehicle slowed, a brown bear, believed to be the mother, charged toward the van and rammed headfirst into the left side of the windshield, shattering the Viper. When the driver tried to reverse and scare the animal away by honking, the bear hit the vehicle with its paw and smashed the windshield at an angle.

Even when the two tried to escape by speeding, the bear chased the vehicle.

“Did you see that?” one of the people in the dashcam footage was heard saying.

“It’s coming, it’s coming, oh my God.”

Japanese publication The Mainichi Shimbun reported that the two men were in the forest picking Allium ochotense, a type of wild onion, around 1 p.m. on April 28 when the incident occurred. According to NHK Japan, the two were not injured in the incident, but the vehicle sustained significant damage as the windshield was cracked and the wipers and bumper were broken.

A special researcher at the Shiretoko Nature Foundation, Masami Yamanaka, told the media that the vehicle came between the mother bear and her cub and she may have felt she had no choice but to attack.

According to NHK Japan, there were estimated to be more than 12,000 brown bears in Hokkaido at the end of 2022, with their population increasing in recent years.

The island, which is about the size of Maine, has recorded 150 bear attacks since 1962, leaving 57 dead and 112 injured, according to The Japan Times. Four people were killed and ten injured in 2021, making it one of the deadliest years on record.

Saman Shafiq is a featured news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @saman_shafiq7.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Video shows bear attack, truck windshield smashed in Japan