Golden Eagle Attacks 20-Month-Old ‘Out of Nowhere’ as Toddler's Mom and Neighbor Fight to ‘Get It to Let Go’

The girl's father, who was not present when the attack happened, said the bird “came out of nowhere"

A golden eagle has been killed after it attacked at least four people, including a toddler, in Norway.

The young bird was repeatedly involved in attacks on humans across a five-day period in early September, according to CBS News.

The public broadcaster NRK said a 20-month-old girl who was playing on a family’s farm in the central Trøndelag region is among the victims, per the Associated Press and The Guardian.

The toddler was attacked multiple times on Sept. 7 while her mother and a neighbor attempted to chase the bird away, The Guardian reported. The girl's father was not present when the attack unfolded, according to the AP.

The father, who was not publicly identified, told NRK that the child’s mother “jumped up and grabbed hold of” the bird, “but had to fight to get it to let go" eventually. “It came out of nowhere,” the father recalled.

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The child was sent to a local hospital and required multiple stitches for the wounds she sustained in the attack, per the reports.

A bicycle courier was attacked by the bird while hiking a steep Norwegian mountainside two days prior. Francis Ari Sture told the AP he was assaulted five times by the bird, which attacked for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Sture was about two hours from his campsite when the eagle’s attack ended, according to the AP. He feared he would lose consciousness at some point and that the eagle “would start to eat me.”

After he reached safety, Sture went to a hospital for treatment.

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The day before Sture encountered the eagle, a woman told NRK she was also attacked. Mariann Myrvang said she felt “something big and heavy landed on my shoulders,” and then yelled for help.

“I went down on my knees, because I couldn’t stand up,” she said, per the AP.

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Myrvang’s husband was able to fight off the eagle with a fallen tree branch, per the reports. She was later treated at a local hospital.

Kåre Vinterdal, a game warden in Orkdal, told VG newspaper the eagle was euthanized after the Sept. 7 attack on the toddler.

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Alv Ottar Folkestad, an eagle expert with BirdLife Norge, told the AP that the animal “likely had a behavioral disorder.” He said the bird’s behavior was “radically different from normal.”

Golden eagles “can reach speeds of up to 120 miles (193 kilometers) per hour during a dive,” according to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. The birds can sometimes be used for hunting and can catch animals as large as deer and antelope.

Young eagles “often play dive with each other,” and all will use the talons on their feet to kill and carry their prey, per the alliance.

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