Bear roaming at the runway halts flights at Japanese airport

A bear roaming the runway forced a Japanese airport to cancel flights on Thursday and declare itself off-limits to passengers for the day.

The black bear appeared at northern Japan's Yamagata Airport early morning, immediately prompting the closure of its runway.

This first sighting resulted in a delay of up to an hour of four flights, before the animal reemerged around noon, this time "running" on the runway.

Airport staff used a car to chase it away and closed the runway again, with the bear still at large somewhere in the facility.

"Given the situation there is no way we can host plane arrivals now," Yamagata Airport official Akira Nagai told AFP Thursday evening, adding the second closure led to 12 flight cancellations.

With hunters brought in to set up a trap and police officers surrounding the airport to prevent the bear from escaping, "we're in a stalemate now", Nagai said.

The facility plans to keep the runway closed till around 8:00 pm, the official said.

Human encounters with bears have reached record levels in Japan, with 219 people attacked and six deaths in the 12 months to April 2024.

Last month, a bear sighting brought a premature end to a golf tournament in central Japan, with organisers citing safety precautions.

Climate change affecting food sources and hibernation times, along with depopulation caused by an ageing society, are causing bears to venture into towns more frequently, scientists say.

Agence France-Presse