Image copyright Sunshine Coast RCMP Image caption A black bear can weigh more than a very large man

A Canadian man had to punch a black bear in the nose to force it outside after it followed a toddler into a British Columbia family's home.

Elery Froude was home with her two sons when she heard her two-year-old yell: "Mom, look!"

She turned and saw a black bear walking through her home's sliding glass doors.

Ms Froude locked herself and her children in a bedroom while a family friend banged pots and chased it with a chair.

"I first laid eyes on the bear when it was actually in my house, almost in my living room, two feet behind my toddler," Ms Froude told CTV News.

"I thought: 'Oh my God, what am I going to do now?' That was when my friend turned around and said get the kids and get them in the bedroom."

The bear roamed throughout the home in Gibsons, BC, "going into most of the rooms and drooling all over her dining room table," said the Sunshine Coast Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in a news release.

There was a brief stand-off with the bear as it stood in the house's doorway before the friend threw the punch. The blow made the brazen bear retreat outside, where it pawed at the door and chewed the screen.

When police arrived, they scared the bear into the bushes by throwing water bottles and blowing air horns.

But the persistent beast returned to the home and tried to get into the garage.

The roughly 100kg (220lb) adult male bear then chased a man who escaped by jumping into his vehicle.

The police decided to kill the bear to protect the public, as conservation officers said its aggression could not be explained by illness.

British Columbia has one of the largest black bear populations in the world, with between 120,000 and 150,000 black bears in the province, and up to 1,000 are killed each year as a result of conflicts with people.