A small Norwegian town on a remote archipelago near the North Pole, where polar bears outnumber human residents, has been shaken by the first-ever bank robbery in its living memory.

On Friday morning, a 29-year-old Russian tourist visited a bank in the town of Longyearbyen on Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. He threatened bank personnel with a Mauser rifle and demanded 70,000 kroner ($8,000), the Svalbard Governor’s office said.

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Someone tried to rob the only bank in Longyearbyen (pop 2000) on the island of Svalbard located close to the North Pole. Only reachable by ship or airplane and the second pic is the only possible area he could have been hiding 😂. https://t.co/XICo0odmiqpic.twitter.com/sHZrm9JWAt — Pat (@VIPatriarch) December 22, 2018

Locals and tourists are allowed to carry weapons on the island due to a huge number of polar bears (over 3,000), whose population surpasses the residents’ community of 2,000.

😝 I wonder how they were planning to get away: Man arrested after armed robbery at bank; believed to be first bank robbery in Longyearbyen’s history | icepeople https://t.co/Eh8tgX0G7F — Torkild Ulvøy Resheim (@torkildr) December 21, 2018

However, the unlucky robber couldn’t get away with his crime and quickly got arrested.

The criminal probably didn’t take into account that almost everyone in the town knows each other. He also apparently failed to work out potential escape routes – a local airport is the only means of leaving the settlement during the polar night.

The Russian was transported to the town of Tromso on the Norwegian mainland, where he will be questioned. The governor admitted that the remote Arctic archipelago is no longer free from crime.

The bizarre heist was ridiculed online, with people wondering how on Earth the robber had planned to get away.

The first report I read (in Norwegian) mentioned three robbers. Which would be astounding. As if one robber in Longyearbyen (with nowhere to escape) would not be sufficient laughing material. — Torkild Ulvøy Resheim (@torkildr) December 21, 2018

Maybe he hadn't thought at all about escape, instead needed a free transport to the continent. — Robert Imgrat (@tauri_ne) December 22, 2018

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