A bear attack sent a 10-year-old girl to hospital with severe injuries Saturday night.

The girl was walking with her father on a popular hiking trail near the Coquitlam River, when the bear apparently grabbed her and tried to drag her into the bush.

The girl’s father and several others had to fight the bear off with sticks and rocks.

“It didn’t want to let go,” one witness told CTV News. “It pulled her into the bush and tried to pull her further and people were whacking its head.”

Eventually, the bear let go, the witness said. But it followed the rescuers as they pulled the girl away from the scene.

“They dragged her into this parking lot here,” he said. “The bear chased after and tried to lunge again. There was a guy with a dog. The dog barked at the bear. It backed off and went into the bushes somewhere.”

The girl suffered a punctured lung in the attack, and underwent surgery Saturday night. Her condition has been upgraded to stable, and she continues to recover at BC Children’s Hospital.

Conservation officers and RCMP responded to the scene - near Shaugnessy Street and Lincoln Avenue, close to the border between Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam.

They discovered two bears at the scene - a female black bear with a cub. The mother bear was destroyed, and the cub was tranquilized, said Sgt. Todd Hunter, of the B.C. Conservation Office’s Fraser North Zone.

Conservation officers were still assessing what to do with the tranquilized cub as of Saturday evening. On Sunday, it was announced that the cub would be sent to Critter Care Wildlife Society, a Langley-based rescue and rehabilitation organization.

Cub from last night's Coquitlam River bear attack sent to Critter Care after mother put down. @CTVVancouver https://t.co/VK7kS5PHme — Ben Miljure (@CTVNewsBen) August 14, 2016

Hunter said officials have responded to several reports of bears in the area in recent weeks.

“There are some natural attractants around, but right here just behind the patrol truck, there’s evidence of a garbage can being ransacked and scattered into the woods,” Hunter said. “That’s generally a telltale sign of bears being in the area.”

Unsecured trash cans are especially common in Coquitlam, Hunter said.

Bylaw officers there are cracking down on residents who leave garbage and food waste outside.

So far this year, officers in Coquitlam have handed out 65 tickets - worth $500 each - to people who left garbage on the curb overnight. Garbage bins are only allowed on the curb between 5:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. on pickup day.