Animal lover Alessandro, 12, tried to remain calm and walk away slowly from the enormous animal that was following him.   

The boy recorded the dramatic scene which happened while he was enjoying a picnic with his family in Sudtirol, northeastern Italy.   

In the video, the youngster is slowly walking down the hillside and a bear's head can be seen poking out from the shrubbery behind him.

Alessandro takes a look behind him and the bear then starts following him but he does not panic, putting into practice everything he read.

The youngster continues walking down the hill and the bear can be seen standing up on its hinds legs as the boy walks away.

His uncle, Federico, told local newspaper La Stampa: 'We had left home only a little while before. In the mountains there were some other people but it was otherwise silent.

'Alessandro walked a few metres ahead of us in order to collect stuff and at one point we saw him coming out from the woods and being followed by the bear. Obviously we were terrified but he was calm.'