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A polar bear mauled to death a British tourist and left four others seriously injured in a horror attack in Norway today.

The beast pounced on the group of up to 20 explorers as they were observing the animals in the Norwegian Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard.

The victim is understood to have been among a group from the British Schools Exploring Society.

The wildlife enthusiasts were camping in the remote region which is inaccessible by roads and heavily populated with the bears.

'We know it was a British group. One person has died and four others are injured. Their injuries are serious,' said Liv Asta Oedegaard, a spokeswoman at the Svalbard district governor's office.

The tragedy happened this morning about 25 miles from the town of Longyearbyen in the Svalbard islands, which are part of Norway.

A renowned polar bear habitat, Svalbard is about halfway between Norway's mainland and the North Pole.

Residents said that the bears stalk the barren region in search of food and that there is a history of attacks.

'It's very sad. We have had attacks before. It happened a year ago when a Norwegian man was attacked. As it was early in the morning I can only suppose the bear attacked them because it was looking for food,' Sandra Swresser, a restaurant manager at Kroa bar in Svalbard, told the Guardian

Liv Rose Flygel, 55, added: 'It's not been the first time. Last summer a man was attacked by a polar bear and there have also been attacks on a man from Austria and a girl. Only the man in the attack last summer survived. He was taken in the mouth of the bear and his friend ran after it and shot it.

'The problem is, when the ice goes, the bears lose their way and cannot catch food. People don't really how dangerous they are. One came down to the sea recently and people were running down to take pictures.'

Ms Oedegaard, said the five tourists had been travelling with a 'British group,' but could not confirm that they were all British citizens or say if they were tourists or visiting Svalbard in another capacity.

The spokesman added: 'We got a call via satellite phone from a British group of campers that there had been a polar bear attack and that one person was dead and that others were injured and they needed assistance.

'There are no roads in the area of the Von Postbreen glacier where the incident happened so we scrambled a helicopter.'

In a statement, the district governor's office said authorities had received word of the attack near the Von Post glacier near the district capital of Longyearbyen at around 7:30 am (0530 GMT).

'The four injured people are now at the Longyearbyen Hospital.

'An ambulance is now scheduled to fly the patients to the hospital in Tromsoe in northern Norway,' the statement said.

The polar bear has now been hunted and killed by wildlife experts in the region.

The Foreign Office says the British embassy in Norway are urgently looking into the reports of the bear attack.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: 'Our embassy in Oslo is urgently looking into reports of an incident in northern Norway.'

It is not known how many were in the party or whether they were on an organised tour or travelling individually. dailymail