Overview
- A wolf bit a woman in the face inside a shopping passage in Hamburg’s Altona district, and paramedics took her to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
- Police later seized a wolf in the Binnenalster lake in central Hamburg after a lengthy operation and placed it in custody.
- The animal was handed to city hunting and veterinary officials and transferred to an animal park while authorities decide its fate.
- Experts confirmed from bystander photos and video that the animal is a wolf and said it was likely a young disperser under stress, though they have not confirmed it is the same individual that bit the woman.
- Germany’s federal conservation agency said this is the first such verified incident in about 30 years, as the country now counts more than 200 wolf packs and faces ongoing questions over how to manage them.