A man who appears to have attacked a bear at a Polish zoo will appear in court on charges relating the fight.

A Polish man will appear in court on charges relating to his attempt to fight a bear.

The man climbed into the bear's enclosure at Warsaw Zoo in Warsaw, Poland, and appears to have attacked it.

Photographs taken by an eyewitness show the man inside the bear's enclosure. It appears the man hit the bear and the bear bit his arm.

Imgur The bear appears to have the man by his arm in this photograph, taken by an eyewitness to the scene.

Police found him in hospital after the incident, where he was being treated for an arm wound. He would not explain why he entered the bear's enclosure.

The man's actions have been criticised by the Warsaw Zoo, which says he was the aggressor.

"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, the zoo's curator of carnivores, told The Independent.

Imgur The man faced off with Sabina the bear in her enclosure at Warsaw Zoo, Poland.

The man was gone by the time zoo staff reached the bear's enclosure.

Krakowiak said she suspected the man was on drugs or had been offered money for the stunt.

"The two guys maybe were on drugs and maybe there was an offer of money to pet the bear," she said.

She said he was lucky to survive.

"Sabina is the bear this man approached and he's lucky because she is generally friendly ... If it had been one of the others the story would probably be different," she said.

Polish tabloid Fakt, citing eyewitnesses, reported the man attacked the bear with his fists.

Police spokeswoman Paulina Onyszko told The Associated Press that police informed the man that he could face a fine of up to 1000 zlotys (NZ$368) if found guilty of provoking the animal into aggression.