First ever Arctic bank robbery goes south: Armed man targets bank on Svalbard - an island half-way to the North Pole with a population of just 2,000 - but is caught straight away

An armed bank robber in the world's northernmost settlement in the Arctic circle has been mocked online after he was captured shortly after his rash crime.

The heist was the first ever bank robbery in living memory on Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago about halfway between Scandinavia and the North Pole.

'There was an armed robbery at around 10.40am,' Terje Carlsen, a spokesman for the local governor in Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard said.

'A man with a gun seized a sum of money. He was arrested quite quickly' in the town centre he added.

Police said the suspect was a foreigner travelling in the region, but declined to give more details about his identity, the amount stolen or the weapon used in the robbery.

He has since been transferred to the town of Tromso on the Norwegian mainland where he will be questioned. 

The odds of the heist succeeding were always low on the archipelago, famous for glaciers and its polar bears who outnumber residents.

Longyearbyen has around 2,000 inhabitants and practically everyone knows each other. The airport is the main means of leaving the settlement.

Commentators on social media were quick to make fun of the failed bank robbery.

'The most reckless bank robbery in Norwegian history?' said one Twitter user.

'He probably forgot to think about his escape route,' commented another.

The Svalbard archipelago, roughly twice the size of Belgium, lies about 600 miles from the North Pole.

Temperatures in winter regularly plunge to below minus 20 degrees Celsius and can drop below minus 40.