A wild polar bear was just shot dead after a run-in with an employee of a cruise ship line. The employee was part of an expedition to the archipelago in northern Norway where the polar bear lived.
The cruise ship landed on Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard islands, on Saturday and a four-person team of polar bear guards — employees whose job it is to survey landing sites to ensure the safety of tourists as they explore on foot — disembarked.
Then, a polar bear appeared suddenly and attacked one of the guards, according to a statement from Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. After first trying to scare the bear away, another guard then shot and killed the polar bear.