OSLO, July 28 (Xinhua) -- An unidentified man was attacked and hurt by a polar bear on Norway's Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, newspaper Aftenposten reported Saturday.
The polar bear was shot and killed after the attack, the report said. The man is in stable condition, according to the Norwegian rescue services (HRS).
The incident occurred when tourists left the cruise ship MS Bremen in a dinghy before they landed on Parry Island, which is the part of Svalbard.
"We do not know anything about the size of injury, but the man is taken aboard MS Bremen and is receiving treatment at the infirmary there, while waiting for the helicopter to arrive on site," Rune Danielsen, rescue leader from HRS told Aftenposten.
Personnel from the governor of Svalbard's office will be arriving with the helicopter to investigate the incident, the report said.
According to Danielsen, it is unknown who shot and killed the polar bear or if the injured person is a part of the tourist group or the crew on the ship. The nationality of the hurt man is also unknown.
MS Bremen is a 111-meter-long cruise ship that can take up to 155 passengers. The vessel specializes in expensive expedition tours in the Arctic regions, which is the highest classification for traffic in the ice-covered regions that a passenger ship can get.
The vessel is on a nine-day expedition around Svalbard, which started on July 23. The passengers have paid between 5,990 and 10,550 euros to participate in the luxurious journey.
This is not the first time people are attacked by polar bears on Svalbard. In 2015, Czech Jakub Moravec was pulled out of the tent by a polar bear, but escaped with slight damage.
Four years earlier, 17-year-old Horatio Chapple from Britain was killed and four others injured when a polar bear attacked them at Von Postbreen, about 40 kilometers from Longyearbyen.
In 1995, Nina Jeanette Olaussen, 22, from Oslo was attacked and killed by polar bear on Platafjellet, just west of Longyearbyen, and just five months later Helmer Kristian Kristensen from Tromso was exposed to the same fate, Aftenposten wrote.
