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A POLAR BEAR was shot dead after attacking a German cruise ship worker on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, authorities have confirmed.
The unnamed man in his 40s suffered head injuries shortly after landing on Spitsbergen island.
He was accompanying a tourist expedition from the MS Bremen of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises yesterday.
“The bear was killed by another employee on the boat,” police commissioner Ole Jakob Malmo told AFP. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises said it was “self-defence”.
“We greatly regret this incident,” company spokesman Moritz Krause said.
The injured employee was flown by helicopter to the local capital Longyearbyen and then on to Tromsø on the mainland, Malmo said.
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Tromsø hospital told AFP the man’s life was not in danger and he was in a stable condition.
Protected since 1973
Polar bears have been protected in Norway since 1973 and nearly 1,000 were counted on Svalbard during a 2015 census.
The archipelago, roughly twice the size of Belgium, lies about 1,000km from the North Pole.
Five fatal polar bear attacks have been recorded on Svalbard in the last 40 years.
The most recent was in 2011 when a bear attacked a group of 14 people on a trip organised by a British schools association.
A 17-year-old Briton died and four other members of the expedition were hurt before the bear was killed.
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Another calamity averted by the services, both staffed and voluntary, who respond promptly and efficiently at all times.
People need to put their brains in gear as well as their protective equipment, which has been instrumental in saving up to nine lives in the last two days alone.
Sadly it was around the same spot that a number of fisherman from the locality between Tramore and Dunmore East have also lost their lives recently and In the past by the same coastal tides around this area. None of them were ignorant of the sea nor what the consequences are but I do know that there are a lot of freak waves and swells that can have the ability to turn over / capsize a boat just after you sail / motor around Brownstown head….. This area has had a fair share of drowning/ sinkings/ capsizes and deaths so thankfully all those on board were recovered safely…..
I don’t see anywhere in the article that error on their part was to blame?? The fact that they were wearing their life jackets possibly saved them long enough to be rescued, so what puts them at fault?
The lad who swam ashore took a big risk leaving the upturned boat. He wouldn’t have to do so if they brought some form of communication such as VHF radio or even flares. Going pooly equipped is a massive fault in itself
Accidents do happen….as the wife of the owner of the boat, I cannot thank the RNLI enough for their swift rescue and if there is a lesson for all to learn it’s that the sea is not a playground. When a tragedy occurs, the crew of the RNLI are putting their lives at risk as well. Please, I beg you all, DO NOT TAKE THE SEA FOR GRANTED. I thank GOD that I did not have to bury my husband and friends after Sundays incident,
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