London, November 10 : A Canadian teenager was trapped on a floating piece of ice with three polar bears on it in the northern part of Hudson Bay in Canada''s Arctic, until he was rescued.

The 17-year-old's ordeal started after the snowmobile he was riding in with his 67-year-uncle broke down about 11 miles from Coral Harbour, a tiny community on Nunavut''s Southampton Island.

The pair later got separated while walking towards the community to seek help.

Director of the Government of Nunavut''s protection services branch, Ed Zebedee, briefed that a large chunk of ice broke off, setting the teen adrift.

Searchers on snowmobiles found the uncle but the teenager was trapped with three polar bears, an adult and two older cubs, on the same large ice pan.

"He did have to shoot the polar bear to protect himself. There were two other bears on the ice pan but they stayed away from him so he didn''t shoot at them at all," the Telegraph quoted Zebedee as saying.

The young boy tried to stay as much farther as possible from the animals.

Jean-Pierre Sharp, an official with the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario, said a pilot sent by a government search-and-rescue agency located the teen 20 miles away from where the snowmobile had broken down.

Later, two search-and-rescue technicians dropped down to a larger ice floating a short distance away to rescue the young boy who was found suffering from hypothermia.

He was taken to a hospital in Churchill, Manitoba after the rescue operation. (ANI)