Human flesh and hair have been found inside the stomach of a bear thought to have killed at least one person in Japan.

Locals have been warned to stay away from the mountainous Akita region after the body of a badly mauled woman was found last week.

Last month three men in their sixties and seventies also died in apparent attacks while harvesting bamboo in a mountain forest.

Bear attacks on humans in the region are not unusual - but fatal ones are.

Local vet Takeshi Komatsu said it was possible the bear may have "got a taste for human flesh".

Hideki Abe, an official in the area, said the human remains were discovered in the bear after hunters killed it on Monday.

He suggested the bear may not be the only one involved in the attacks as "two thirds of the stomach was filled with bamboo shoots" - bear's staple food.

The worst bear attack in Japan was in 1915 when an 8ft bear woke from hibernation and killed seven villagers in Hokkaido.