A BC conservation officer said a man is lucky to be alive after being attacked by a grizzly. 

Sgt Matthew Corbett said on July 16, a man was riding his bike from South Hazleton down to Anderson Flats on a trail that goes by Mission Creek when he ran into a sow.

"This grizzly bear had two cubs and were feeding on the berries down in the flats for quite a while," he said. "We've known about it, they've always reacted to hazing well from people and ran off, so it hasn't really been a big concern. But I guess he spooked it on the trail and it immediately charged him and then it knocked him down."

Corbett said the cyclist was able to get his bike in between the bear and himself, and the bear continued to bite his bicycle.

"But he was luckily safe underneath it. And then the bear backed off for a minute and came back to bite more. And he said he heard that if you punch a bear in the nose, it goes away. So he punched it in the nose as hard as he could, and it ran off."

Corbett said they didn't try to find the bear because it was a defensive attack and they were just accessing natural food sources down by the river.

Anderson Flats Park was closed temporarily to allow the bears to move along on their own.