A Russian mother listened helplessly on a cellphone to her teenage daughter crying for help earlier this week as she was eaten alive by bears.
The horrified mother of Olga Moskalyova, a 19-year-old psychologist in training, heard her daughter's desperate pleas for help after receiving a call from her daughter on a mobile phone.
Tatiana Tsyganenkov listened in horror to the screams as her daughter was attacked by a brown bear and its three cubs Wednesday near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in eastern Siberia.
According to The Daily Mail, Moskalyova screamed, "Mum, the bear is eating me! Mum, it's such agony. Mum, help!"
Tsyganenkov said she initially thought her daughter was joking but quickly realized there was a desperate struggle going on and that her daughter was fighting for her life.
"I heard the real horror and pain in Olga's voice and the sounds of a bear growling and chewing. I could have died then and there from shock," Tsyganenkov said, according to NineMSN.
Moskalyova and her stepfather, Igor Tsyganenkov, were camping near a river in Russia when the mother bear attacked him. It reportedly broke his neck and smashed his skull. Having witnessed the attack, Moskalyova attempted to flee but was able to run only about 70 yards before the powerful brown bear grabbed her leg and forced her to the ground.
During the struggle, the girl's calls to her mother were cut off at least three times. The girl somehow managed to call her mother back each time. A helpless Tsyganenkov could only listen in horror to her daughter's screams for mercy.
In a second call to her mother, Moskalyova said, "Mum, the bears are back. She came back and brought her three babies. They're... eating me," The Daily Mail reported.
When the call was disconnected, a panic-stricken Tatiana Tsyganenkov contacted police in the nearby village of Termalniy and begged them to rush to the river where the attack was taking place.
Moskalyova spoke with her mother one last time roughly an hour after she made the first call.
"Mum, it's not hurting anymore. I don't feel the pain. Forgive me for everything. I love you so much," she said.
When authorities later arrived on the scene, they found Igor Tsyganenkov's body. The mother bear was still devouring his remains when they came upon the scene, Dubai Media reported. Moskalyova's badly mauled body was found not far away. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Half a dozen hunters were later dispatched to kill the mother bear and her three cubs. Authorities have not yet commented on whether the hunt succeeded.
"My daughter was such fun. She was so cheerful, friendly, and warm," Tatiana Tsyganenkov said, her words spoken in a voice diminished by grief. "She had graduated from music school, and just days before the bear attack she got her driving license."
