POLAR BEAR DRAGGED BOY FROM TENT AND KILLED HIM

The leader of an Arctic expedition in which a polar bear ripped an Eton schoolboy from his tent and mauled him to death has admitted failings.

Horatio Chapple, 17, from Salisbury, died on an expedition to Svalbard,
Norway, in August 2011, organized by the British Schools Exploring Society.

Richard Payne told an inquest into the death there were "deficiencies and failures" with their equipment.

An independent report into the death also criticized the expedition.

Sir David Steel was appointed by the British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) - which is now called British Exploring - to conduct an inquiry into the death

Its publication was delayed to coincide with an inquest into Horatio's death, which opened earlier on Monday.

Four others hurt

"This tragedy was caused by the rare occurrence of an intrusion of a starving polar bear into a camp situated well inland in Svalbard," Sir David wrote.

"It was a remote possibility but not unforeseeable."

Sir David said the trip wire alert system had "missing pieces of equipment" and was "not an adequate substitute for a bear watch".

Poor storage and deployment of the group's rifle also led to several failures to discharge the weapon, he wrote in the report's conclusions.

The report was ordered a month after the incident and completed in 2012, but its publication was delayed at the request of Horatio's parents.

An example of a polar bear attack

The student was asleep in a tent when the bear attacked in August 2011.

Four others were seriously hurt before the animal was shot dead by one of the group leaders.

The Chapple family said in a statement - released before the start of the inquest into Horatio's death and before the report's findings were made public - that they "accept some of the conclusions in the Steel report".

However, they said they "do not believe the account of Horatio's death to be accurate".