A woman screamed in terror as a huge black bear lunged at her dog as she stepped out of her home.

Gina Helsel was taking her dog outside to scare off local cats - but they were both confronted by a much larger animal.

A video captured on Gina's doorbell camera show her leaving the house and peering around the corner of her porch as the dog starts barking.

Suddenly a huge bear appears forcing Gina, from Daytona Beach, Florida, USA,

back into the house with her dog.

A spokesperson for Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told local news: "The bear is mostly focused on the dog. "

"It basically lunges, does a bit of a bluff charge. Then, when her and the dog retreat, the bear runs away."

"They just all startled each other. She probably wasn’t prepared to have a bear sitting there, and the bear probably wasn’t prepared to have her show up with the dog."

Black bears are the only species of bear found in Florida and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimates there to be 4,050 roaming in the wild.

The incident happened on August 10.