A polar bear that found its way to Iceland June 17 was supposed to be picked up by a crew from Copenhagen Zoo and taken back to Greenland.
But police sharpshooters killed the bear, who locals had christened Ofeig, on Iceland on Tuesday evening.
Officials said the bear had attacked a group of journalists "in panic," Der Speigel reports.
The Icelandic public broadcaster RUV said a 12-year-old girl first spotted the bear in front of her parents' farmhouse near the town of Saudarkrokur on the Skaga fiord and raised the alarm.
"We tried to get within shooting range, but then the bear ran up over a hill and out towards the sea. We decided it would have posed too great a danger if we let it swim away," said Carsten Grøndahl, head veterinarian at Copenhagen Zoo. "We couldn't know where she would have come on land again. You can't have a dangerous animal running around, so we had to put people's safety first."
The polar bear was the second from Greenland to be killed in Iceland over the past two weeks. The first bear was shot by hunters amid protests from animal rights groups.
