The 19-year-old woman was attacked and killed by a bear on July 10 in the central Romania Bucegi mountains.

Romania's environment minister Tánczos Barna responded by saying that the number of bears in the country was “out of control”, estimating that the number could be as high as 8,000.

Over the past 20 years, 26 people have been killed by bears in Romania and 274 people have been injured in such attacks, according to government figures.

Parliamentarians say that the increase in attacks is due to the “overpopulation” of the species in the country which has the largest brown bear population in Europe outside Russia.

Announcing the new law to regulate bear numbers, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said hunters would not be allowed to freely kill the animals and that culling would only be permitted in the country’s most dangerous regions.

But environmental NGO’s in Romania say that the numbers of brown bears are unknown because a scientific genetic analysis of the bears has never been conducted.

Forestry employees could be counting the same bear again and again, they argue, and their own interests could be motivating these numbers.

Last month, NGO Agent Green submitted a petition to the European Parliament and a detailed report on the legislation managing the brown bear population.

It argues that Romanian legislation violates European law as it is endangering the protected species and citizens’ life and safety.

According to environment experts, culling will not solve the bear problem. They say that measures need to be taken to keep bears away from villages. For example, communities should make changes to their waste management and people need to stop feeding the carnivores.