Bear roaming runway halts flights at Japan 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.

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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.