You have to see this! Man narrowly escapes polar bear charging at him
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RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE — A man is lucky to be alive after being charged at by a massive polar bear who came within feet of the man.
A bystander captured the heart-stopping moment that took place in late April 2025 in the Arctic town of Pyramiden on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Pyramiden is a former mining town that nowadays is mostly visited by seabirds, Arctic foxes, and polar bears.
The video that recently went viral shows a hotel worker standing outside with a gun and he’s face-to-face with a polar bear. The worker fires a shot before taking off towards a snowmobile as the bear chases him.
The Svalbard tourism website explains that adult polar bears vary in size from 200 to 800 kg and that even cubs weighing under 100 kg can be extremely aggressive and dangerous.
“Humans are considered alien in the polar bear habitat, and a polar bear may see us as potential prey,” the website states.
The man in the video is then seen throwing his gun to the ground and quickly hopping onto the snowmobile that was already on and ready to go.
“Man, good thing that snowmobile didn’t fail him. Whew. What a rush!” one comment on the video reads.
The polar bear chases after the man and snow-machine for a few seconds before deciding to call it quits.
“Very brave guy,” someone is heard saying in the video.
Another person in the video reiterates, “Damn. That guy is brave.”
The Svalbard tourism website mentions that polar bears attack “extremely quickly without warning” and that people should “be accompanied by a local guide with a firearm when leaving the settlements.”
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