A schoolboy has been killed by a polar bear during an expedition being led by a 27-year-old writer from Brighton.
Travel writer Andy Ruck was one of four people hurt when the 40-stone bear rampaged through the expedition’s camp.
The four suffered bite and claw wounds to their head and arms as they tried to protect themselves.
Their injuries were described as serious but not life-threatening.
The 7ft polar bear attacked early this morning (Friday 5 August) while members of the expedition were still asleep in their tents in Svalbard, Norway.
Undeterred by traps around the camp, the bear killed Eton schoolboy Horatio Chapple, 17.
It injured two other youths, Patrick Flinders, 16, and Scott Smith, 17, who were hurt as they fought off the bear.
Mr Ruck, an experienced expedition leader, and his colleague Michael Reid, 29, were also injured while trying to protect the party.
One of them managed to shoot the bear dead despite their injuries.
The injured survivors were flown to Tromsø University Hospital on the Norwegian mainland where they are recovering.
The trip was organised by the British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) and suffered the first fatal attack by a polar bear in Svalbard for 16 years.
More than 3,000 polar bears live on Spitsbergen, the island in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard where the attack happened. The arctic island is home to just 2,300 people.
Mr Ruck, who was born and raised in Brighton, is the author of Asi Es La Vida, a South American travel book published by Pegasus last year.
His author profile on the Pegasus website says: “Andy Ruck was born in Brighton in 1984 and remained there until a fascination with mountains and other cultures rather complicated matters.
“He has spent most of the last six years in Scotland with brief and not-so-brief forays into the Alps, Norway, Spain, Morocco, the Indian Himalaya and, of course, South America.
“Somewhere along the way he gained a Master of Research in Social Anthropology from the University of Aberdeen.
“He still lives in Aberdeen and still doesn’t know what to do with his life.”
The BSES chairman Edward Watson paid tribute to Horatio Chapple, who came from Salisbury in Wiltshire.
He said: “Horatio was a fine young man who wanted to go on to read medicine after school.
“By all accounts he would have made an excellent doctor.
“We and the Norwegian authorities are currently establishing the full circumstances of his tragic death.”
