Today (Wed­nes­day, 08th August), a per­son was inju­red and a polar bear kil­led during an acci­dent at Sve­a­ne­set in Ekm­anfjord.

Not much is known so far in public, but a polar bear came into a camp with 25 French tou­rists. A woman recei­ved inju­ries to her arm, but her con­di­ti­ons appears not to be life threa­tening.

The polar bear was shot at during the event and it is now repor­ted dead.

Fur­ther details are not available at the moment.

In 2017, it was deci­ded that the for­mer coal mining sett­le­ment of Sveagru­va would be aban­do­ned and actual­ly most­ly phy­si­cal­ly clea­ned up and remo­ved. A mile­stone was rea­ched recent­ly, on 01st August, when the final flight took off from Lon­gye­ar­by­en to Sveagru­va and back. This 20 minu­te air con­nec­tion has been the life­line for Sveagru­va for deca­des, more than 40,000 flights are said to have been ope­ra­ted.

Air­plai­ne on the run­way of Sveagru­va.

Now, the litt­le air­port of Sveagru­va will be remo­ved. About 70 peo­p­le will work on this and other parts of the cle­a­nup pro­ject for the next cou­ple of months. During this time, they will live not live in the for­mer sett­le­ment any­mo­re, but on sup­p­ly ships.

Next year, a small work force of 8 is sche­du­led to do the last bits and pie­ces of the cle­a­nup, accor­ding to Sval­bard­pos­ten.

The for­mer coal mining sett­le­ment of Sveagru­va, inclu­ding the mines of Lun­ckef­jel­let and Sveagru­va, is well docu­men­ted on this web­site (click here).