A zoo has criticised a man for climbing into one of its enclosures and appearing to attack a bear.

Pictures posted to Imgur, seemingly show the man climbing into the enclosure at Warsaw Zoo in Poland, approaching the animal, and putting its arm in its mouth.

His actions have been criticised by the zoo, which has insisted the bear did not act in an aggressive manner towards the intruder.

One image seems to show the man hitting the bear as he tries to escape before running way.

"The bear did not attack the man. When you see the pictures you can see that the bear stayed in the same place the whole time, the man came to her, the man attacked the bear,” Maria Krakowiak, curator of carnivores at Warsaw Zoo, told The Independent.

"If he came inside her enclosure and she wasn’t aggressive to the man and she stayed where she was – this man attacked her.

"The two guys maybe were on drugs and maybe there was an offer of money to pet the bear. The police are on the track of this man and hopefully they will catch him pretty soon."

The member of zoo staff on duty at the time did not see the incident and was alerted to the issue by local authorities. By the time zoo staff reached the pen, the man was gone.

Ms Krakowiak added: "The only signs we found were bloodstains outside the enclosure, from the sidewalk, but this was outside the enclosure, there were no signs of blood in the bear area.

"The man was probably injured, but we can’t say anything more than that. Our colleagues heard on Wednesday morning that this man had an interview with TV about this accident. Maybe he wanted to be a star?

"He probably jumped into the water moat and climbed into the enclosure, it’s not a far distance from the water moat to the enclosure." The man, 32, has since been located in a hospital, where he is being treated for an arm wound. However, he as refused to tell police why he entered the bear enclosure.

Police spokeswoman Paulina Onyszko told the Associated Press that police warned the man that he could face a fine of up to 1,000 zlotys (£172) if found guilty of provoking the animal into aggression.