A French tourist was injured by a polar bear which entered a camp on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, in the Arctic, Monday August 8, announced the local authorities. “His days are not in danger”, local police chief Stein Olav Bredli told AFP. The tourist, in her forties, was evacuated by helicopter to the hospital in Longyearbyen, the main town of the archipelago. The exact circumstances of the incident were not specified.
The woman, whose identity has not been specified, was part of an expedition of 25 people who were staying in tents in the middle of nature in the west of this territory, just over a thousand kilometers from the North Pole.
polar bear slaughtered
“Shots aimed at the polar bear, which was frightened and left the scene”detailed Stein Olav Bredli. Injured, the animal was later located by the authorities who, due to the extent of its injuries, finished it off.
Six fatal attacks for humans have been counted since 1971 in Svalbard. The last involving a 38-year-old Dutchman dates back to 2020.
According to experts, the receding sea ice under the effect of global warming deprives bears of their favorite hunting ground, where they gorge themselves on seals, and pushes them to approach places populated by humans, in search of of food.
