Something just snapped in 16-year-old Yashka’s mind.
Perhaps it was the bright lights that filled the small circus tent. Or it was the loud tinny music that pierced his ears.
Maybe it was simply the internal recognition that as a 600lb apex predator, he had been reduced to doing little more than cutesy tricks for a travelling circus.
Whatever was going on in his mind, it was enough for Yashka, an enormous Russian bear that was under the yoke of the Anshlag travelling circus from the city of Voronezh, to become totally violent.
In an instant, the Russian bear went from carting a wheelbarrow as part of the ‘Bow-legged and the Wheelbarrow’ performance to viciously gnawing at his handler’s arm.
Audience members let out shrill screeches as another circus worker began kicking the bear from behind.
But Yashka wouldn’t let go, and his rampage continued.
He kept digging his claws and teeth into Ruslan Solodyuk, his handler, and audience members began running.
The Russian bear went from carting a wheelbarrow to viciously gnawing at his handler’s arm
The circus act begins without incident – but in just a few moments it takes a dramatic turn
Onlookers were horrified by the attack.
Mother-of-one Galina Gurieva, 27, who filmed the distressing scene in Olonets town, said: ‘My knees are still trembling.
I was shocked there was no fence for the safety of spectators, given the size of the bear.’
Another parent said: ‘The spectators rushed outside in panic, including me.’
One more visitor posted: ‘It was an enormous bear, and they lost control of him.’
Another said: ‘At first, for a few seconds, while recording the video, everyone thought it was a script.
‘But when the assistant started kicking the bear and pulled out the shocker, the panic started.
‘People got up and ran to the exit.’
The trainer walked the bear to the other side of the stage, where it appeared to grapple him
The performer carries on as normal, but struggles to shake the 600lb bear
Even after the bear was given an electric shock it ‘had time to walk in a frenzied state in the arena, thus terrifying the people’.
A father said: ‘We expected to see cutie cubs and they brought in a huge grizzly-terminator.
Solodyuk claimed at the time of the 2019 attack that Yashka was on his final tour and was not feeling well.
He said he had never been violent before, and that his aggression was caused by his old age and joint pains that were aggravated by the autumnal weather.
In an instant, the bear lunges for the circus performer before dragging him to the ground
A circus worker kicks the bear from behind as it wrestles with the other on the ground
Lyudmila Misnik, the manager of the circus, meanwhile told Russian news media that the blame for the attacks rested on the shoulders of spectators, who had provoked the bear by ignoring requests to turn the flash off their phones as they took videos and pictures.
Bears, which are the national animal of Russia, have long been a mainstay in Russian circuses, despite their wild nature.
Captured bears are normally chained up by their necks, and forced to perform tricks for laughing audiences.
In 2018, in an apparent sign of dominance over the fierce animals, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that Vladimir Putin was so tough that bears would regularly take a wide berth of him.
‘Bears aren’t idiots. If they see Putin, they will behave properly,’ Peskov boldly said.
