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Authorities on Norway’s remote Arctic Svalbard Islands said a French tourist sustained non-life threatening injuries after a polar bear attacked a campsite on Monday.
The camping group was across a fjord from Longyearbyen, a settlement on the islands, about 500 miles north of the Norwegian mainland.
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“The French woman suffered injuries to an arm. Shots were fired at the polar bear, which was scared away from the area,” chief superintendent Stein Olav Bredli said.
Local media reports described the unidentified woman as in her 40s.
The bear was later tracked and killed after it was badly injured and underwent “a professional assessment,” Bredil said.
Local government has debated banning camping in the area, which has had five fatal bear attacks since the 1970s. Visitors are required to be armed. A full-time polar bear watch is also a solution under discussion.
Between 20,000-25,000 polar bears live in the Arctic region.
With News Wire Services
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