Rare Polar Bear Found in Iceland, Shot Dead: 'Not Something We Like to Do'

reykjavik - A polar bear that wandered into a remote village in northwestern Iceland was shot dead by the police after posing a threat to a woman staying in a summer house.

A polar bear found wandering in an isolated village in northwestern Iceland was shot and killed by the police after being deemed a threat to a woman staying in a summer house.

The woman, who was alone, had locked herself upstairs in her house while the polar bear was rummaging through her garbage. The bear got too close to the house, posing a threat.

Authorities refused to relocate the bear to Greenland due to cost concerns, leading the police to make the decision to shoot the polar bear. 'This is not something we like to do,' said Helgi Jensson, police chief of Westfjords, to The Guardian.

According to Anna Sveinsdóttir, director at the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, polar bears are not native to Iceland and only occasionally come ashore after drifting on ice floes from Greenland.

The incident marks a rare phenomenon as the bear shot on Thursday was the first seen in Iceland since 2016. Throughout Iceland's history, only 600 polar bears have been recorded since the ninth century.

Polar bears are a protected species in Iceland due to their endangered status. It is illegal to kill them unless they pose a threat to humans or livestock.