A 39-year-old Romanian jogger has been found dead after he was mauled by a bear and possibly dragged to its lair where his body was recovered by rescuers.

The victim, Crivat Alexandru-Cornel, 39, had left his home on Sunday to go for a run in the snow-covered woodlands around the city of Azuga in Prahova County in Romania.

He was apparently a regular in the local woods and knew the trails very well, which is why his family were worried when he did not return home as expected.

When he did not return as planned, the alarm was raised by his father, and police, using tracker dogs, carried out a search where his lifeless body was eventually found outside the bear’s lair.

In a statement by the Prahova County Police Inspectorate (IJP) a spokesman said: “From the first investigations, there are indications that the man was attacked by a wild animal, most likely a bear.

“The man’s body is being sent to the County Forensic Medicine Service for an autopsy to confirm the cause of death.”

Early reports indicate that the dead man’s body was found outside the bear’s lair, but it is unclear if the unfortunate man had disturbed the bear which may have only recently woken from its winter sleep, and whether it attacked him and dragged him to the spot.

There was no sign of the bear when the man’s body was recovered.

Having lost a lot of fat over winter which makes them faster, and often hungry, bears are regarded as particularly dangerous once they have woken up from their winter sleep.