British teenager killed in polar bear attack
A polar bear has killed a British teenager and injured four others in a remote area of Norway. Horatio Chapple was in a group of students on a British Schools Exploring Society expedition.
The 17-year old was mauled to death early on Friday about 25 miles from the town of Longyearbyen in the Svalbard islands.
The bear was later killed and the four wounded people have been flown to the Norway‘s mainland. Two, who are seriously injured, have been taken to Tromsø.
The British Schools Exploring Society, which is based in Kensington, west London, has confirmed the dead boy as Horatio Chapple. It is believed he was a student at Eton college.
BSES chairman Edward Watson said: “Having spoken to the family, we are now able to advise that the young explorer who died on our expedition this morning is Horatio Chapple.
“Horatio was a fine young man who wanted to go on to read medicine after school. By all accounts he would have made an excellent doctor.
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“We and the Norwegian authorities are currently establishing the full circumstances of his tragic death and will not be releasing this until we have discussed this fully with the family.”
Trip leaders Michael Reid and Andrew Ruck, as well as two young men – Patrick Flinders and Scott Smith – are reported to be the others attacked by the bear. Patrick Flinders’s father told reporters that his son’s injuries were not life threatening.
“There were about 80 people on the expedition. The young people are all between 16 and 23,” a BSES spokeswoman said.
Helicopter scrambled
Liv Asta Odegaard, a spokeswoman for the Governor of Svalbard, said: “We got a call via satellite phone from a British group of campers that there had been a polar bear attack and that one person was dead and that others were injured and they needed assistance.
“There are no roads in the area of the Von Postbreen glacier where the incident happened so we scrambled a helicopter.”
She added that four other people had been “severely injured” and had been taken, first, to hospital in Longyearbyen and that air ambulances would be flying the injured on to University Hospital in Tromso.
The polar bear is the only land mammal who will actively hunt man. I know this because I’ve been followed by one. Jim McNeill, explorer
Earlier this year the Svalbard governor issued a warning about polar bears after several were seen close to Longyearbyen.
People who spotted bears were asked to telephone an emergency number. The governor reminded the public that under local regulations it was prohibited to seek out and disturb polar bears and that obvious violations of this rule could be punished by fine or jail.
‘Active hunters’
Polar explorer Jim McNeill, who has been to Svalbard, said the authorities there are “very good” at ensuring people are prepared for polar bear encounters.
He said these kind of attacks are becoming “increasingly common” because more and more people are going to see polar bears.
“The polar bear is the only land mammal who will actively hunt man. I know this because I’ve been followed by one on a solo expedition in Canada for a week and a half.
“You’ve got to watch out and have a range of devices to put them off and know first and foremost how to react to their behaviour or what behaviour you’re looking at. Are they being curious? Are they being predatory?”
“Polar bears are top of the food chain in that environment and you must wholly respect that and be knowledgeable about what’s going on.”
