A vacation drive through Romania’s famous Carpathian Mountains turned into a nightmare when a tourist was mauled by an enraged bear after stopping to feed the wild animal and her cub.

Georgi Bizhev, a 46-year-old holidaymaker from Bulgaria, was traveling near the Vidraru Dam in central Romania last Wednesday when he spotted a mother bear and her cub along the mountain road.

Instead of driving on, Bizhev stopped his car, tossed food scraps toward the animals, and began filming the encounter.

Moments later, the situation exploded into chaos.

Video filmed by an onlooker shows the adult bear suddenly lunging at Bizhev’s vehicle and forcing herself toward the open window. In another clip recorded by Bizhev himself, the terrified tourist can be heard screaming for help as the animal claws and bites at him.

The bear reportedly smashed a window and tried to drag him out of the car.

Bizhev suffered serious bite wounds to his left arm. He later said he raised his arm to protect his face and neck as the bear attacked.

“I saw the bear’s ears prick up and it jumped at me,” he said, according to local reports. “It tried to grab me and pull me out of the car.”

The terrified tourist said his seatbelt may have saved him from even worse injuries by keeping him inside the vehicle as the bear tried to yank him out.

Other drivers nearby honked their horns and shouted in an effort to scare the animal away. Romanian emergency crews were later called after Bizhev alerted guards at the dam.

Officials said the mother bear was likely acting defensively to protect her cub.

The road near the Vidraru Dam is known as a popular “bear pass,” where tourists frequently stop to observe the animals. But authorities have repeatedly warned visitors not to approach or feed wild bears, especially in areas where the animals have become used to humans.

Bizhev, a sports official and former football club president, admitted he made a dangerous mistake.

“I entered its environment,” he said. “It was a mistake for which I paid.”

He has since returned to Bulgaria for further medical treatment.

The shocking attack has reignited warnings about tourists feeding wildlife in the Carpathian region, where bears are protected but increasingly conditioned to associate people and vehicles with food.

Authorities say those encounters can turn deadly in seconds.

The Romania mauling comes as another frightening bear attack unfolded this week in Japan, where a black bear injured four people in a residential area in Fukushima.

Police and fire officials rushed to the Sasakino district on Tuesday after receiving an emergency call from Fukushima Steel Works, where two employees had been attacked.

Security footage reportedly showed the bear chasing a man in his 20s near an entrance before knocking him to the ground. The animal then moved deeper into the compound and injured another male employee in his 60s.

A third male employee in his 60s was attacked at a separate company, and a woman in her 80s who lived nearby was also injured, officials said.

The back-to-back attacks serve as a chilling reminder that even animals that appear calm near roads or neighborhoods can become dangerously unpredictable, especially when people get too close or offer them food.