German man to leave hospital after polar bear attack

A German cruise ship employee who survived a polar bear attack at the weekend on the Svalbard Archipelago, off northern Norway, was to leave hospital on Monday, as police offered more details of the attack.Svalbard police said the man was one of 12 crew members on the MS Bremen cruise ship that disembarked on Saturday at one of the northernmost islands.The crew were preparing for a visit by tourists when the polar bear attacked, police said."The victim, a 42-year-old man from Germany, was wounded in the head," Svalbard police superintendent Ole Jakob Malmo said in a statement.Two other crew members shot and killed the polar bear, he said.The group initially attempted to scare off the polar bear by shouting and discharging a signal pistol, Malmo added.The polar bear has been taken for examination to Longyearbyen, the main settlement on the Arctic archipelago.The probe was expected to take some time, while Svalbard police had no further comment.The man's injuries were described as moderate. After initial treatment in Longyearbyen, he was flown to Tromso, the mainland, where he was to be discharged on Monday, said Jorn Resvoll, spokesman for the University Hospital of Northern Norway.Svalbard authorities regularly issue warnings about the dangers posed by polar bears, and recommend people travelling outside the main settlements to carry firearms and other devices to scare them off.