Bear attack survivor relives ordeal

Horatio Chapple, who was killed in a polar bear attack in Norway
12 April 2012

A teenage adventurer who was left with horrific facial injuries after being mauled by a killer polar bear on a school expedition to the Arctic said he believed he was going to die during the terrifying ordeal.

Patrick Flinders defended himself by lashing out at the wild 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 savage attack, while three other explorers were left seriously wounded.

Patrick and his 13-strong group from the British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) were sleeping in their tents on the remote Von Postbreen glacier near Longyearbyen when the 250kg bear stuck at around 7.30am on August 5.

Reliving the harrowing moment the hulking animal attacked, the teenager said he first heard a scratching outside his tent before it suddenly collapsed.

He 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 anymore!' 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."

Patrick, from Jersey, continued: "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.

"Then 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."

Patrick, who was left with fragments of the bear's teeth lodged in his head, was sharing a tent with 17-year-old Eton schoolboy Horatio and pal Scott Bennell-Smith, from Cornwall.

Speaking about his friend's death, Patrick, who needed 20 staples in his head, said: "Horatio had been lying one side of me, Scott on the other. If I has slept where he was I would be dead. I feel guilty it was him and not me."

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