Polar bear kills British tourist in Norway

• An injured person is carried from a helicopter in Longyearbye in the aftermath of the attack. Picture: Thomas Lysgaard/AP

A party of around 80 on a British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) trip were camping on a remote glacier when the attack took place early this morning.

The four injured, who included two leaders of the trip, were being flown to Tromso in Norway.

The young people and their leaders were on a trip which began on July 23 and was scheduled to run until August 28.

Today's attack came as the party were visiting the Von Postbreen glacier, about 25 miles from Longyearbyen, near Svalbard.

Liv Asta Odegaard, spokeswoman for the Governor of Svalbard, said: "We got a call via satellite phone from a British group of campers that there had been a polar bear attack and that one person was dead and that others were injured and they needed assistance.

"There are no roads in the area so we scrambled a helicopter."

She added that four other people had been "severely injured" and had been taken, first, to hospital in Longyearbyen and that air ambulances would be flying the injured on to University Hospital in Tromso.

The polar bear has been killed.

Sandra Swresser, a restaurant manager at Kroa bar in Svalbard, said: "It's very sad. We have had attacks before. It happened a year ago when a Norwegian man was attacked. As it was early in the morning I can only suppose the bear attacked them because it was looking for food."

Another local person, Liv Rose Flygel, 55, said: "It's not been the first time. Last summer a man was attacked by a polar bear and there have also been attacks on a man from Austria and a girl. Only the man in the attack last summer survived. He was taken in the mouth of the bear and his friend ran after it and shot it.

"The problem is, when the ice goes, the bears lose their way and cannot catch food. People don't really how dangerous they are. One came down to the sea recently and people were running down to take pictures."