Wildlife officials have caught and euthanized a bear that they said closely fit the description of one that attacked a Longwood woman Monday night in the same Seminole County neighborhood.

The 200-pound bear was caught Wednesday night in a trap set up following the attack on 54-year-old Susan Chalfant while she was out walking her dogs on English Ivy Court, off Markham Woods Road.

"Because the bear was caught within 48 hours of the incident and near the area where the woman was injured, the decision was made to euthanize the bear," FWC spokeswoman Karen Parker said in a statement released Thursday. "Samples from the bear will be sent in for testing."

"Since the incident resulted in serious injuries, we decided to follow the course of an abundance of caution and put the bear down," said FWC Executive Director Nick Wiley. "Because public safety is a top priority, we will continue working with the community and our trapping efforts."

While a cub trapped earlier in the week was believed to be too small, officials say the much larger bear trapped last night closely matches the description of the bear in Monday’s attack, even down to its paw prints.  Wildlife officers say in an abundance of caution, they decided to euthanize the bear shortly after trapping it.

“A lot of people are going to be upset about that, as I was, but public safety comes first ... and that’s where we stand,” said Karen Parker, Florida Fish and Wildlife.

Wildlife officials say it will take about a week before they will get tests back that could prove if the bear euthanized was in fact the bear who attacked. Some people we talked to Thursday say they should have waited for confirmation of that.

“It’s unfortunate and scary for the woman involved, and I hope she’s doing okay, but it seems they acted very quickly without knowing for sure,” said Mary-Jo Snively.

“I think they should’ve waited, it wasn’t for sure that it was the bear that attacked the woman,” said Vanessa Brugge.

But others say putting the bear down was justified.

“I’m sure that bear is not the same bear that was walking in our backyard because I’m about five or six miles from here, but I think they did the right thing,” said Steve Johnson.

Wildlife officials say for now, several traps set up in the area will stay in place until further notice.