A black bear is believed to have fatally attacked a 60-year-old man from Missouri whose body was found Thursday near a campsite in Arkansas, said officials, who cited evidence of a struggle and drag marks leading from the camp into the woods.

Sheriff Glenn Wheeler of Newton County, Arkansas, said Friday that the cause of death of the man at the campsite, Sam’s Throne Campground in the rugged Ozarks, had been officially ruled an “animal mauling,” and that the manner of death was an accident.

He said that the Arkansas State Crime Lab would not confirm that the animal was a bear until DNA sampling was completed, but the victim’s body had extensive wounds that were “consistent with those expected from a large carnivore attack.”

The campground and the surrounding area have been closed while

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