Cruise employee kills polar bear to attack tourists – Europe – International

A tourist guide was injured when a polar bear attacked in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, in the Arctic, before another guide killed him. plantigrade, confirmed the Norwegian authorities on Sunday

. Aged 40, employed by the German company Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, he worked on the ship MS Bremen.

Events occurred Saturday , the guide who accompanied a group of tourists aboard the boat landed on the coast. A polar bear attacked him "in a surprising way," argued the company.

Another employee who was on the boat killed the animal, said Commissioner Ole Jakob Malmo of Spitsbergen Island, where the incident occurred.

The company Hapag-Lloyd Cruises refers to an act of "legitimate defense". "We are sorry for this incident," said Moritz Krause, spokesman for the company

. The victim was first transferred by helicopter to the regional capital Longyearbyen, then to Tromsø on the mainland, he added.

His condition is stable told AFP the Tromsø Hospital

Hapag-Lloyd Cruises explained that he had the "permission" of local authorities "to land, which Malmo confirmed

. "Landings are only possible in certain places (of the archipelago)," adds Krause

In Svalbard, bears live in the wild, so in these excursions, companies must have staff to ensure their protection. The Svalbard Archipelago is located about one thousand kilometers from the North Pole and about 800 kilometers from the Norwegian mainland coast. According to 2015 data, there would be about a thousand polar bears in this area, a protected species since 1973.