RUSSIAN ARCHIPELAGO DECLARES EMERGENCY AFTER POLAR BEAR ‘INVASION’

DPA, 10TH FEBRUARY, 2019 An “invasion” of polar bears has prompted officials to declare a state of emergency in Russia’s Arctic Novaya Zemlya archipelago, local media reported on Saturday.

The bears had begun gathering near human settlements in the archipelago in the Arkhangelsk region in December, the news agency TASS reported, with at least 52 spotted near the settlement of Belushya Guba.

Between six and ten bears were permanently on the settlement’s territory and there had been cases of bears attacking people and entering residential buildings and offices, it wrote.

“The emergency situation was caused by the mass invasion of polar bears in residential areas,” the Archangelsk governor and regional government said in a statement.