Polar bear killed after attacking French tourist on Norway’s Svalbard islands

The tourist was part of a camping group

File: A polar bear on a glacier (via REUTERS)

A French tourist has been injured after being attacked by a polar bear at a campsite in Norway’s remote Arctic Svalbard Islands.

The authorities said the woman’s injuries were not life-threatening. The bear was later killed, said officials.

The woman, who was not identified, was part of a tour group of 25 people camping at Sveasletta, in the central part of the Svalbard archipelago, located some 800 kilometres (500 miles) north of the Norwegian mainland.

The campsite was located across a fjord. The attack happened on Monday morning.

“The French woman suffered injuries to an arm. Shots were fired at the polar bear, which was scared away from the area,” said chief superintendent Stein Olav Bredli. Further details on her injuries were not disclosed.

She was flown by helicopter to the hospital in Longyearbyen.The main newspaper on the Arctic archipelago, Svalbaldposten, said the victim was a woman in her 40s, and quoted local hospital official Solveig Jacobsen as saying that the woman was slightly injured.

Bredil later told Svalbardposten that the animal has been “badly injured” and following “a professional assessment” it was put to sleep. It was unclear how it was killed.

Svalbard is dotted with warnings about polar bears.

Visitors who choose to sleep outdoors receive stern warnings from authorities that people must carry firearms. At least five people have been killed by polar bears since the 1970s.

The last time it happened was in 2020, when a 38-year-old Dutchman was killed.

Up to 25,000 polar bears live in the Arctic, it is estimated.

In 2015, a polar bear dragged a Czech tourist out of his tent as he and others were camping north of Longyearbyen, clawing his back before being driven away by gunshots. The bear was later found and killed by authorities.

(With agencies)