Girl, 3, saved from bear pen

A DUTCH man braved an angry bear to save his three-year-old daughter after the girl climbed a fence in a German zoo and tumbled into the animal's pen, police said yesterday.

Both father and daughter needed to be hospitalised, but their wounds were not life-threatening, police in Trier said.

The incident occurred when the 34-year-old man, his wife and their two children were visiting the Luenebach zoo in southwest Germany. While her parents were not watching, the girl scrambled over the approximately three-foot high fence and fell into a moat, police said.

Though her father climbed after her quickly, the 28-year-old Asiatic black bear had already hit the girl's forehead, injuring here, police said in a statement.