Eclipse Tourist: Polar Bear Went For My Head

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A tourist visiting Norway for the eclipse has described the terrifying moment a polar bear dragged him out of his tent as he slept.

"It was going for my head. I used my hands to protect my head," said Jakub Moravec.

Mr Moravec said he managed to fend off the animal's jaws before another of the group grabbed a shotgun and saved his life.

"Now I am fine. I have some scratches in the face, on one arm and on the back. But I feel fine," Mr Moravec told the Svalbardposten newspaper.

The Czech citizen was in a group of six on a ski and snowmobile trip on the Svalbard islands, 500 miles from the Norwegian mainland.

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Gallery: Polar Bear Attacks Eclipse Tourist In Svalbard, Norway

A Czech tourist who travelled to a remote Arctic island to see the solar eclipse is recovering in hospital after being attacked by a polar bear

Jakub Moravec was asleep in a tent on the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard when the animal dragged him out. Warning: A photo of the dead polar bear follows

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The bear was eventually found and killed by authorities

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Thousands of tourists are in Svalbard ahead of the rare eclipse

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Accommodation has been booked out for years and people choosing to sleep outdoors have been warned of the dangers

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Another of the group, Zuzana Hakova, told local media her mother had shot at the bear three times.

Authorities later hunted the predator down and killed it.

Mr Moravec was taken to hospital by helicopter but said he was hoping to be out of hospital in time for Friday morning's solar eclipse.

"I'd gladly go out to the mountains on Svalbard again," he told the Svalbardposten newspaper.

The remote Norwegian islands are one of the few places on land from which people were able to see the Moon totally block the Sun. A partial eclipse was also seen in the UK.

Several thousand people travelled to Svalbard, as well as about 8,000 to the Faroe Islands.

Another member of Mr Moravec's group was taken to hospital with frostbite, and locals said the incidents were a stark reminder of the dangers of 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," said Aksel Bilicz, manager of Svalbard's Longyearbyen hospital.

"Both the weather conditions and the bears can be very dangerous."

A bear killed British teenager Horatio Chapple, 17, on Svalbard in 2011, the most recent fatality.

On average, three bears a year are shot in self-defence by people on Svalbard and people are ordered to carry guns when travelling out of town.

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