Hamburg: First wolf attack in Germany since settlement in 1998

"There has not been a case like this since the reintroduction in 1998," a spokeswoman for the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation told the German Press Agency (dpa) after a suspected wolf bit a woman in Hamburg.

According to the environmental authority, the attack by the animal, which was later captured, took place in a shopping arcade in Hamburg-Altona. How the incident occurred has not yet been conclusively clarified, said a spokesman for the environmental authority.

The animal - a wolf according to the authorities - was caught in Hamburg city center late in the evening: Police used a noose to pull the animal out of the water at the jetty on the Binnenalster, according to a spokesman for the situation center in the evening.

Now many wolves in Germany

The wolf expert from the German Wildlife Foundation, Klaus Hackländer, believes it is realistic, based on current information, that the animal was actually a wolf. "The likelihood of a wolf entering a settlement or even a town is high due to the large number of wolves we now have."

For around 150 years, the wolf was thought to be extinct in Germany. Only after the fall of the Berlin Wall did several animals return to Germany via Poland. Today, wolves roam the forests of numerous federal states.