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Journalism of Courage
A video of a close call with a polar bear in Norway turned into a dramatic escape for a man who was forced to flee on a snowmobile after the animal suddenly charged at him. The chilling encounter video has left the Internet stunned.
The incident occurred on Sunday, April 27, near the remote Arctic town of Pyramiden in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, USA Today reported. According to witnesses, the man had a snowmobile nearby, a stroke of luck that saved his life.
In a heart-pounding video captured by Rebecca Baack, the man can be seen noticing the polar bear running in his direction. He initially tries to shoo away the animal by firing what appeared to be a flare gun. After a moment’s hesitation, the bear suddenly charges, prompting the man to drop the weapon and make it to his snowmobile.
He quickly jumps aboard and speeds off, with the polar bear briefly chasing after him before stopping and sitting down in the snow. “Very brave guy!” one person can be heard saying behind the camera. Another person said, “Damn, that guy is brave!”
Baack, who shot the video, was a visitor staying at a hotel in Pyramiden for a ski expedition. She identified the man as a hotel employee and said he was likely attempting to scare the animal off with a flare gun, the report said. Unfortunately, the shot “banged behind the bear, driving him in the wrong direction,” USA Today quoted Baack as saying.
After the chase, the man reportedly sought protection by getting into a nearby pickup truck. Meanwhile, the polar bear wandered beneath the hotel building. Baack said the bear eventually helped itself to snacks stored on one of the snowmobiles, ignoring repeated efforts by staff to scare it off using truck horns, the report said.
“Once he finished, he left town and went back out in the direction of the sea ice,” she said.
Despite the tense situation, Baack praised the hotel staff for their quick response and crowd control. “The hotel did a great job keeping about 100 drunk tourists safe inside, which was no small task,” she said.
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The video prompted numerous reactions, with a user commenting, “Can you imagine if the keys weren’t in the ignition?” Another user wrote, “If he didn’t start the snowmobile, this minute the bear would have had a free lunch.”
