Police officers stand next to the body of a bear they shot in a Coquitlam, B.C., yard on Wednesday.Police officers stand next to the body of a bear they shot in a Coquitlam, B.C., yard on Wednesday. (CBC)

A Coquitlam, B.C., woman needed surgery to repair damage to her head, torso and arms after she was mauled by a bear in her yard Wednesday morning.

The woman, who has not been identified, was in her garden in the Westwood Plateau area when an aggressive bear entered her yard around 9:30 a.m., her neighbours told CBC News.

Police said the woman fell to the pavement of her driveway as the bear attacked. She suffered bite wounds to her arms, legs and torso before neighbours, who heard her screams, drove off the bear by throwing rocks at it.

The woman was taken to hospital, where she's believed to be in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries. RCMP later shot the animal in a nearby yard.

"We didn't want to run the risk of having this bear run around the neighbourhood, especially after what had happened," said Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Tony Farahbakhchian.

Officers said the bear was likely hunting the woman as food, and they plan to do a necropsy to try to determine why.

Bear sightings common

Police said bears are drawn to the Westwood Plateau area of Coquitlam because many residents don't store their garbage properly.

Residents said there have been other encounters with aggressive bears in the area this summer.

Dominika Rutowski told CBC News that she and three others encountered a bear Sunday in a nearby forested area.

"It was growling at first, but then, when it was coming closer to me, it wasn't," she said.

She tried to scare it away, but it moved closer, she said.

"I kicked it in the face, because it started getting really close to me."

With the help of her dog, the four people chased the bear away, but it followed them as they left the area.

Rutowski said she reported the incident, but authorities did nothing.

Provincial conservation officer Rick Hahn said they don't always attend to bear reports because people who live next to a forested mountain should expect to see bears.

With files from the Canadian Press