Polar bear attack on Phipp­søya: man inju­red, polar bear shot – first details

The polar bear attack on Phipp­søya (Sjuøya­ne, Sval­bard) from Satur­day is dis­cus­sed in media and social media world­wi­de. The Sys­sel­man­nen (gover­nor, poli­ce) has released some details, but a lot of ques­ti­ons remain so far.

At 08.30 a.m. (local time), a group of 12 staff mem­bers of the crui­se ves­sel MS Bre­men went ashore on Phipp­søya to pre­pa­re a lan­ding for pas­sen­gers. The group was atta­cked on land by a polar bear, which did not react to shou­ting and shoo­ting with signal pis­tols. The bear atta­cked a 42 year old Ger­man staff mem­ber who suf­fe­red head inju­ries. The man was taken to the hos­pi­tal and later Trom­sø, his con­di­ti­on is sta­ble.

The bear was shot by 2 other mem­bers of the group and later flown to Lon­gye­ar­by­en by heli­co­p­ter for inves­ti­ga­ti­ons.

This is the infor­ma­ti­on which has been released offi­cial­ly. All infor­ma­ti­on which cir­cu­la­tes in cur­rent public dis­cus­sions bey­ond this is spe­cu­la­ti­ve.

Polar bear on Phipp­søya, a fre­quent­ly used lan­ding site on Sjuøya­ne nort­hern­most in Spits­ber­gen (archi­ve image).