A brown bear killed a hiker in Eagle River. A man searching for him was mauled.

What Anchorage police described as an aggressive brown bear believed to have killed an Eagle River man and suspected of badly injuring another man had not been found as of Wednesday afternoon. Biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game searched for the animal earlier on Wednesday. As of 4 p.m., no one was in the field but biologists were putting together a plan for what to do next, said department spokesman Ken Marsh. The body of Mike Soltis, an Eagle River man missing since Monday, was discovered in a brushy area close to the end of Hiland Road in Eagle River late Wednesday morning. A member of the search party looking for him was mauled by a brown bear close to where the man's body was discovered. The searcher, who was hospitalized with what police described as serious injuries to his leg, wasn't immediately identified. "It appears the brown bear was protecting the body (of Soltis) when it attacked a member of the search party," police wrote...MORE