The bear who injured a 71-year-old woman in her New Hampshire home this week was likely looking for food — and may have entered through a door that then shut behind him, officials said. The woman, Apryl Rogers, suffered serious injuries after she encountered the bear in her kitchen early Tuesday morning.

Rogers, who uses a wheelchair, managed to get away from the animal and call 911, said Colonel Kevin Jordan, chief of law enforcement for New Hampshire Fish and Game. Authorities responded to the emergency call around 1:17 a.m. and found Rogers at her home on Halls Brook Road in Groton, where she lives alone.

The bear was gone.

Rogers was taken to Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth, N.H., and was later transferred to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon. “She sustained significant lacerations to her head and face,’’ Jordan said. “She went through five hours of surgery yesterday.’’

As of Wednesday morning, Rogers was in stable condition. Her injuries were serious but not life-threatening, he said. Authorities had not had the opportunity to speak to Rogers, as she was still hospitalized, but it appeared that the bear entered the residence through a door and somehow got stuck inside the house, he said.

Jordan said Fish and Game personnel, firefighters, and EMS workers found the house had been “ransacked.’’ Things were tipped over, and two windows were broken, he said. Exactly how the bear got out was unclear; it might have escaped through the door or window. Jordan said the injuries Rogers suffered were most likely the result of the bear scrambling to get out. “We think he ran her over trying to get out of there,’’ he said.

According to the New Hampshire Fish and Game website, black bears are generally shy and try to avoid humans. “Their main focus is to eat every day,’’ Jordan said. “If the door was a little ajar, he went in. They don’t know any better.’’ Bears have been known to enter houses in search of food. Several videos of bears inside people’s homes can be found online, he said.

“We get at least one or two a year,’’ he said. But this kind of violent encounter is rare. “Thankfully, this doesn’t happen often,’’ he said. “But I always feared it might.’’ Jordan said efforts to locate the bear have been unsuccessful thus far. A live trap was set up near the home, he said. Jordan said the bear was probably traumatized by getting trapped in the house, so it will most likely stay away.

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emilysweeney.