A B.C. man is in serious condition in a Victoria hospital after he was attacked by a grizzly bear on B.C.'s Central Coast.

The attack Monday morning occurred while the man was picking berries in the Oweekeno area, near Rivers Inlet, about 350 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.

The man, believed to be in his 50s, suffered lacerations and bites to his arms, legs and head, but managed to find his way to the home of Frank Hanuse, about one kilometre away from the scene of the attack.

"He was pretty much dripping in blood, his arm was chewed up pretty bad, his leg was chewed up and one side of his scalp was gone," Hanuse told CBC News Monday night. "I thought, 'Holy smoke. That's a long way to walk with those wounds.'"

Hanuse got the victim to a local clinic and he was airlifted to Victoria General Hospital Monday evening.

The attack follows the discovery Thursday of the remains of a woman that had been eaten by bears near Lillooet, B.C., north of Whistler.

Tests are being performed to see if the woman had been killed by the black bears or if they had found her body after she had died.

A local conservation officer said he suspects she was in fact killed by the animals, although such attacks are rare.

Grizzly bears tend to occupy areas far away from human settlements and are a much larger much more aggressive species than black bears.

Hanuse said conservation officers are set to arrive Tuesday morning to look for the bear responsible for Monday's attack.

With files from the CBC's Robert Zimmerman