A Mission, B.C., man is shaken but has only minor injuries after being knocked to the ground by an aggressive black bear yesterday evening.

Elias Hart says he was walking on the Cedar Valley Connector trail around 8 p.m. PT when the bear popped out about a metre in front of him.

"I turned around to run. He knocked me down, and then lucky there was a fence there so I grabbed onto fence and started yelling at the bear as loud as I could, got up and started waving my hands," Hart said.

"I got up just in time when he swatted at me. He just about got me."

Hart finally managed to scramble over the fence, but the bear followed close behind, scaling the fence as well.

Then just as the bear got on top of the fence and was about to follow Hart over the other side, some cars came by and scared it back into the forest.

"I've never seen bears, not like this before, right up close in my face … I thought I was done," he said.

"It's just craziness. It's just lucky it didn't happen to some woman or some teenager."

Hart walked away with just minor scratches on his leg and a wild story to tell.

"It's right by the road. That's craziness. You don't see that stuff in the city. You hear about a bear attack out in the forest, not the in the city."

Conservation officer Sgt. Steve Jacobi says Hart was very lucky to escape with only minor scrapes, given the bear's very aggressive behaviour.

Officers were in the area Friday morning, trying to track the bear down, and Jacobi said he expects the bear will be destroyed if caught because it was so aggressive.