Norway: Polar bear attacks tourist in Svalbard

NORWAY,  March 23: A polar bear attacked a man camping in Norway’s Arctic Svalbard region Thursday, authorities said, injuring his face and arm.

The man was one of six people who were on a combined ski and snowmobile trip in the Svalbard archipelago, the local governor’s office said on its website.

The other people in the group shot the polar bear dead and the injured man was flown by helicopter to Longyearbyen hospital, the governor’s office said.

The attack occurred in Fredheim, in Tempelfjorden, it said. An investigation is underway.

It’s not the first time tourists and polar bears have come into conflict in Norway’s remote Svalbard archipelago.

In 2011, a British schoolboy was killed when a polar bear attacked a school group that was camping near the Von Postbreen glacier.