Polar bear attack hero had bear’s teeth in skull
One of the boys wounded in Friday’s polar bear attack that killed a 17-year-old boy had to have parts of the bear’s teeth removed from his skull, it has been revealed.
Patrick Flinders was one of the boys mauled by a polar bear when it attacked their campsite in Norway on Friday while they were on an expedition.
The bear appears to have entered the campsite unnoticed and avoided setting off any warning flares.
It entered the tent that 16-year-old Patrick was sharing with Horatio Chapple, 17, and Scott Bennell-Smith, 16, and attacked the three teenagers. Horatio Chapple was killed outright during the attack.
Patrick is now being hailed as a hero for punching the 250kg (39-stone) bear on the nose in an attempt to fend it off, and was severly hurt in the process. He was smashed across the face and head by the bear and sustained injuries to his ear and eye.
The bear attacked his head while he was trying to fight it off and bit into him. Terry Flinders, father
In an interview with the BBC’s Today programme father Terry Flinders said Patrick’s skull had been broken, and parts of the bear’s teeth had had to be removed from his head.
He said: “The bear attacked his head while he was trying to fight it off and bit into him, so the operation he had in Norway was to remove some bone and some of the polar bear’s teeth from his skull.”
Patrick is in hospital in Southampton but is said to be in good spirits. Scott has also returned to a British hospital and his parents are said to “extraordinarily relieved” to have him home, according to his headmaster.
Kieran Earley, of Devonport High School for Boys, told BBC Cornwall that the teenager had his jaw broken and lost some teeth after being hit in the face by the bear during the attack.
Also wounded in the attack were Michael “Spike” Reid, 29, and fellow group leader Andy Ruck, 27. Reid shot the bear in the head, but not before the bear wounded him.
The family of Horatio Chapple, who was killed by the bear, said in a statement that their son was “strong, fearless and kind”.
‘He was on the cusp of adulthood and had a clear vision of where his life was going’ – family statement about Horatio Chapple
They said the teenager had been “so excited about his plans to be a doctor”, they said, praising his “amazing sense of humour and ability to laugh at himself”.
“He was on the cusp of adulthood and had a clear vision of where his life was going,” the statement said.
The group were part of 13-strong British Schools Exploring Society expedition, camped on the remote Von Postbreen glacier on Spitsbergen in the north of Norway.