Bright cellphone light saved Manitoba man from polar bear attack

(Wikimedia Commons)

Monday, September 9, 2013, 11:03 AM -

Saved by the cellphone light.

A man walking to his home in Churchill, Man., from a hotel early Saturday morning ran into a polar bear.

Churchill Mayor Mike Spence says the bear scratched the man's shirt and bit him somewhere in the back.

Spence says the man pulled out his cellphone as the bear reached for him, but the light startled the bruin, who backed off a bit and then knocked something over.

While the distracted bear looked away, the man bolted to safety.

Taxi driver Roberta Wokes picked up the injured man.