Solar eclipse tourist mauled by polar bear in Svalbard

A tourist who travelled to Norway's remote Arctic archipelago Svalbard to watch the solar eclipse has been attacked by a polar bear.

Jakub Moravec, from the Czech Republic, was dragged out of his tent as he slept. The animal clawed at his back before it was scared away by gunshots.

Speaking to the Associated Press from the hospital on island Spitsbergen, Moravec said: "It was going for my head. I used my hands to protect my head."

He was part of a group of six holidaymakers on a ski and snow scooter trip that was camping north of Longyearbyen.

After receiving medical treatment, Moravec told local media he was fine. There were no other injuries in the attack.

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Zuzana Hakova, a member of the group sleeping in a different tent, told local newspaper Svalbardposten that it was her mother who shot three times at the bear, prompting it to flee.

The bear was later found and killed by authorities.

Aksel Bilicz, manager of the Longyearbyen hospital, said the incident was a reminder of the dangers in the Arctic.

"I think there's been a tendency, even before the eclipse, that a lot of people come here and they don't know where they're going," he told the AP. "Both the weather conditions and the bears can be very dangerous."

Before the solar eclipse, mayor of Svalbard's main settlement Longyearbyen, Christian Kristoffersen warned the expected 1,500 visitors of the dangers.

"Safety comes first, even before the eclipse," she told Reuters. "We need to take care of people. It's terribly cold in March and we have the challenge with polar bears."

There are around 3,000 polar bears in Svalbard and just 2,642 people living in the remote archipelago.