The search for the identity of an emaciated man who it was believed had miraculously survived in a bear's den in
Russia for a month took a fresh twist today.
It has now been claimed that the victim was actually in hospital in Kazakhstan and had never been attacked.
The bearded 'living mummy' who purportedly survived a horrific ordeal after being ambushed by the bear, was first reported in the Moscow media before making international headlines.
A graphic video and pictures showed the appalling condition of the 'survivor', who was said to have suffered a broken spine in the attack by the bear who stashed him to eat later.
t was claimed he had been trapped inside a bear den after the predator broke his spine and saved him for a future meal.
Today, Moscow-based EADaily news agency which was behind the story offered a cash reward for anyone who can identify the man, known only as Alexander.
But every hospital in Tuva, the area where the attack was reported to have happened, has now denied that the man had been a patient.
At the same time, checks by independent researchers point to the video clip of the man being not from Russia, but neighbouring Kazakhstan.
A second language used by female voices in the footage has been revealed not as Tuvan but Kazakh.
And tonight a group searching for lost people in Kazakhstan claim that the video shows a man who was recently admitted to hospital in the city of Aktobe.
The group called zello.poisk investigated whether the man in the video called Alexander might be a missing male they were looking for with the same name.
He wasn't, but they did clarify he comes from Aktobe and had not been attacked by a bear.
In a posting they said: 'We checked the hospitals (in Aktobe) and asked them to help us.
'In the end we discovered that this man (in the 'bear den' case) is from our city.
'He is being treated in one of the hospitals and is getting better.'
The group said of the man featured in the video: 'He is ill.
'But the doctors said that they will cure him.