A bear kills a man while he sleeps in a camp on a Norwegian island

A polar bear surprised a man sleeping in his tent with a "treacherous" attack and killed him, on a Norwegian island near the North Pole, as the British newspaper "Sun" reported.

The 38-year-old Dutch man, Johan Jacobs Coty, was sleeping in his tent in a camping area near a town on the island of Svalbard, where a polar bear attacked him vigorously, seriously wounding him, and died shortly after.

Then the dead animal was found dead, as local residents shot it in the wake of the attack. 

Blood stains were seen near the camping site, while 6 other people were sleeping, but there were no injuries, according to local reports.

In Svalbard, also known as "Spitsburg," residents are advised to carry a weapon when outside urban areas for fear of attacks from stray animals.

According to a 2015 census, the archipelago that includes the island has been home to nearly 1,000 polar bears of protected species since 1973.

So far, 5 fatal attacks have been recorded on the island's residents since 1971, the last of which was in 2011 when a British student was killed and 4 wounded by a bear attack on a group of 14 people, who were camping as part of a school trip.