A viral video shows a polar bear charging at a man who was forced to drop his gun and escape on a snowmobile in Norway.
According to Fox News, the video was recently recorded in Pyramiden, an Arctic town in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. The Daily Mail reported that Pyramiden residents had been attempting to scare bears away from the area after a polar bear was found near multiple snowmobiles.
Rebecca Baack, who was staying at a hotel in Pyramiden as part of a skiing expedition, recorded the viral video and told Storyful, “I was woken up around midnight with someone saying there was a bear. A staff member was trying to scare it away when the bear charged him.”
Baack’s video shows a man firing a weapon as a polar bear starts running toward him. The man can then be seen dropping the weapon and running toward a snowmobile in an effort to escape the charging polar bear. The bear can also be seen continuing to chase the man on the snowmobile before finally ending the chase.
According to The Daily Mail, the man featured in the viral video was a Russian mining manager. The Daily Mail reported that a source at Arktikugol, a Russian Arctic coal company, claimed that the recent polar bear incident in Pyramiden occurred as roughly 80 people were staying in the town.
“Bears frequently enter Pyramiden because their migration route runs through the area,” the source told The Daily Mail. “Some bears are aggressive, while others are more timid and skittish.”
READ MORE: Pic: Massive bear charges hunter, shot with pistol
According to Visit Svalbard’s tourism website, the polar bear is “one of the world’s largest carnivores” and is known as the “King of the Arctic.”
“Polar bears attack extremely quickly without warning. Be accompanied by a local guide with a firearm when leaving the settlements,” the website warns. “Adult polar bears vary in size from [440 to 1,763 pounds]. Humans are considered alien in the polar bear habitat, and a polar bear may see us as potential prey. The polar bear is incredibly strong and even cubs weighing under [220 pounds] can be extremely aggressive and dangerous.”
