TOMSK, October 20. /TASS/. A scrap-metal collector in west Siberia's Tomsk region used a broken computer to drive away a bear he encountered at a garbage dump, a local ranger said on Monday.

The bear, scavenging for food, attacked the man, who threw the computer at the animal and ran away, the ranger told TASS, noting that the man was lucky as he had injured his hand on the computer's splinters and was not chased by the animal.

"It has been a lean year and there are too many bears that come to towns in search of food," he said, adding that four cases of bear cannibalism had occurred in the region.