HE’S BEAR-HIND YOU!

Family look on in terror... but boy walks calmly away

HE had spent lockdown learning about wild animals, which was just as well. For as schoolboy Alessandro Franzoi strolled through the woods near his home, an enormous brown bear began to stalk him.

Luckily the 12-year-old remembered what to do, stayed calm and walked away slowly – as his family filmed the amazing scene. They were having a picnic near Trentino in the Italian Alps when Alessandro, who was taking a walk, encountered the bear – but didn’t panic.

‘It was important to leave quickly but without making the bear feel it was in danger,’ he told La Stampa newspaper. ‘I did not look it in the eye and the bear understood I was not its enemy. And now I am the happiest child in the world.’

His uncle Federico said: ‘Obviously we were terrified but Alessandro was calm. Animals and forests are his passion.’

Gently does it: A relative films as the bear follows Alessandro down the slope

Safe: The bear stands, top, then stops as the boy nears his family