An emaciated polar bear has been sighted in a Russian industrial city in Siberia, far south of its normal hunting grounds.

Emergency officials in the city of Norilsk in a statement on Tuesday warned local residents about a bear that has been spotted in one city district.

Anatoly Nikolaichuk, chief of the local hunting department, told the Tass news agency said that the last time a polar bear was seen in the area around Norilsk was more than 40 years ago. He said that local officials will now decide whether they can catch the animal and airlift it back to the north.

The female bear, visibly weak and seemingly ill, lay despondently on the ground for hours on Tuesday in Norilsk’s suburbs, its feet caked in mud, occasionally rising to sniff around for food.

Images of the visibly exhausted animal roaming the roads of the Arctic city in search of food have been widely shared on social media in Russia.

“He is still moving around a factory, under observation by police and the emergency services, who are ensuring his safety and those of residents,” environmental services official Alexander Korobkin told AFP.

A team of specialists are set to arrive on Wednesday to inspect the animal and decide its fate. Polar bears are increasingly wandering into human-inhabited areas in northern Russia as climate change and regional development affect their own habitat and food supply. However such sightings so far away from the ice are rare.

Oleg Krashevsky, a local wildlife expert who filmed the polar bear close-up, said it was unclear what had brought the animal to the city, although it was possible it had simply got lost. He said it had watery eyes and could clearly not see well.

Climate change has been damaging polar bears’ sea-ice habitats and forced them to scavenge more for food on land, bringing them into contact with people and inhabited areas.

A state of emergency was declared in a remote inhabited area of northern Russian earlier this year when dozens of hungry polar bears were seen scavenging for food and entering public buildings and homes.

State wildlife experts are expected to arrive in Norilsk on Wednesday to assess the bear’s condition.

Agencies