Brown bears ransack cemetery, eat at least 20 corpses, including a child's in Russia

In a bizarre case of human-wildlife encounter, wild brown bears have ransacked a cemetery in Russia and eaten the remains of the dead.

Two bears were shot after the predators dug up at least 20 recently buried graves.

The carnage happened some five miles from Elizovo in remote Kamchatka region.

Human remains were exposed as the wild animals plundered the site, and an infant's coffin was among those ripped apart, according to local reports.

Hunters are now monitoring the graveyard amid fears that more bears were involved in the attack — and will return.

According to Pavel Korotaev, who was visiting the graves of his children, the bears had even broken the metal fences.

Local official Dmitry Shchipitsyn said a team had been sent to assess the damage.

According to him the reason that the bear unearthed the graves was that funeral agencies had done their work in a poor way and had not dug the graves as deep as they should have done.

Russian rules dictate that burials should be to a minimum of 5ft deep.