German cruise ship under fire after polar bear killed
LONDON/COPENHAGEN:A polar bear was shot and killed after it attacked and injured a guard from a cruise ship that had stopped at an Arctic archipelago, Norwegian authorities said.
The death of the bear at the hands of another cruise ship employee on Saturday drew condemnation on social media, with some calling it “abhorrent” and others questioning killing the polar bear for “acting like a wild animal.”
A spokesman for Hapag-lloyd Cruises, the German operator of the cruise expedition, said on Sunday by phone that “we completely regret what happened” to the bear but that the cruise ship employee had acted in self-defence. The guard who was attacked had suffered head injuries but was now responsive and in “stable condition.”
The operator said on its Facebook page that the purpose of the landing on Svalbard was not “to serve the purpose of polar bear observation, on the contrary: polar bears are only observed from aboard ships, from a safe distance.”
Norwegian authorities on Monday defended the actions of the guards, saying they at first tried to scare it away.
A police spokesman said two members of the 12-man crew that set foot on the most northern island of the Svalbard archipelago ahead of tourists on Saturday first tried to ward off the bear “by shouting and making loud noises as well as firing a signal pistol, but to no effect.” AGENCIES