SEOUL: South Korean police said on Sunday they had shot dead two runaway bears who had escaped from a farm near the capital Seoul.

The two bears -- both female and six-years-old -- broke free from their cage at a farm in Yongin city, south of Seoul, on Saturday morning.

One of them was shot dead near the farm about four hours after the escape, while the other was killed on a nearby hill Sunday morning after a search effort involving dozens of hunters and hunting dogs, area police said.

"The bears were extremely agitated in the middle of a mating season," Yonhap news agency quoted a police official as saying.

About 1,000 bears are being raised in farms across South Korea, where tonics made with bear bile are believed to endow special physical strength and boost sexual performance. AGENCIES