New Delhi, April 2 -- A wolf bit a woman in a shopping area in Hamburg before it was pulled out of a lake in Germany's second-biggest city, authorities said, in what is believed to be the first such attack since wolves returned to the country in 1998.

The fire service said that the woman was taken to a Hamburg hospital after the unusual encounter on Monday evening, German news agency dpa reported. There was no immediate information on her condition Tuesday, and police didn't detail where she was bitten. It also wasn't clear what led to the attack.

The attack took place in a shopping area near the Altona station, west of the city center. Late on Monday evening, police said, officers hauled the wolf out of the Binnenalster lake in downtow...