Japanese city shuts down nearly 100 schools after unprecedented bear sighting

File image of a black bear in Iwate prefecture, Japan. A record 50,000 bear sightings have been reported this year in Japan. Photograph: Yoshihiro Sato

A city in Japan has closed all its 94 primary and secondary schools after a bear was spotted in the municipality for the first time.

Officials in Utsunomiya, a city of half a million people about 100km (62 miles) north of Tokyo, took action after a medium-sized black bear – estimated to be about one-metre-long – was seen near a park in the city on Saturday. The bear was spotted again on CCTV running just in front of two startled young men in the city centre, in the early hours of Sunday.