Polar bear attack survivor: ‘I thought I was going to die’

Patrick Flinders, 17, tells of terrifying ordeal as polar bear rampaged through school group’s camp in Svalbard, Norway A teenager left with horrific facial injuries after being mauled by a polar bear on a school expedition to the Arctic has told how he believed he was going to die during the attack. Patrick Flinders defended himself by lashing out at the animal as it rampaged through a camp of young British explorers trekking across the Norwegian island of Svalbard earlier this month. The 16-year-old’s friend Horatio Chapple was killed during the attack, while three others were seriously injured. Flinders and his 13-strong group from the British Schools Exploring Society were asleep in tents on the remote Von Postbreen glacier near Longyearbyen when the 250kg polar bear entered the camp at around 7.30am on 5 August. He said he heard a scratching outside his tent before it suddenly collapsed. Flinders told the Sunday Mirror: “The fabric of the tent hit my face. I pulled my sleeping bag over my head crumpled into a ball and shut my eyes. I was screaming ‘I don’t want to be here any more.’ “I saw the bear dragging one of the leaders along by his head in the middle of the circle of six tents. I wanted to hide but there was nowhere to go. Then the bear came towards us.” Flinders, from Jersey, added: “I looked up and saw its huge mouth snapping. All around its nose was blood. At that moment I thought I might die. It hit me with its paw and my arm came out of my sleeping bag. Then I felt its teeth around my elbow, biting down on the bone. “Suddenly it had my head in its jaws and I could feel it crunching my skull … I could hear it crack. I heard a growl which was deafening because I was so close up.” Flinders was left with fragments of the bear’s teeth lodged in his head and later needed 20 staples. He was sharing a tent with 17-year-old Eton schoolboy Chapple and another friend, Scott Bennell-Smith from Cornwall. Flinders said he lashed out and tried to punch the bear before the attack came to an end: “I lashed out and waved my arm up to punch the bear in the head, again and again to get it off me. “Scott must have decided to run because it suddenly dropped me and ran after him,” he said. “Scott screamed. Then I heard one shot.” Expedition leader Michael Reid, 29, managed to shoot the bear dead but only after his rifle failed four times. He suffered head and facial injuries during the rampage. Leader Andy Ruck, 27, and Bennell-Smith were also badly mauled. Speaking of his friend’s death, Flinders said: “Horatio had been lying one side of me, Scott on the other. If I had slept where he was I would be dead. I feel guilty it was him and not me.” Arctic Polar regions Norway Animals Europe guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 28, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.