German authorities release wolf after attack on woman

A wolf that was held in captivity after apparently attacking a woman has been released with a transmitter, the environmental authority in the northern German city of Hamburg says.

The young male animal was released on Sunday at a location that has not been revealed.

"We have now found a legally secure solution with the rewilding of this wolf that takes account of people's safety and animal welfare," city Environment Senator Katharina Fegebank said.

Thanks to the transmitter, a hunter could now intervene should the wolf approach human habitation, she said.

The wolf was first sighted in Hamburg at the end of March.

On the evening of Monday, March 30, it entered a shopping arcade in the city's Altona district, biting a woman who was about 60 years old.

It then ran through the city before jumping into the Inner Alster lake, where police were able to catch it.

While Fegebank's ministry assumes that the wolf bit the woman in panic as she tried to release it through the arcade's automatic glass doors, others point to evidence from an eyewitness, who said that it had jumped up at the woman but not bitten her.

On Sunday, about 100 people gathered at the point where the wolf was caught to press for it to be freed.