US state of Minnesota
Ice floe aborts: Police rescue 200 anglers from the sea
Ice fishing is popular in the US state of Minnesota (stock image)
© Scott Olson/Getty Images / AFP
In the US state of Minnesota, the ice fishing season has only just begun and the first emergency has already arisen: around 200 anglers had to be rescued from an ice floe.
About 200 anglers were rescued by an ice floe that broke off the shore of a frozen lake in Minnesota on Monday. On the Upper Red Lake near the border with Canada, a “large floe” moved up to 27 meters from the shore, so that the ice anglers were cut off from the way back to land, the local police said on the online service Facebook.
The rescue workers had received an emergency call, after which around 100 people had drifted from the shore. With the help of drones, a suitable place for a transition was found where a temporary bridge could be placed over the water. Fearing that some anglers might be unaware of their precarious position, an alert was sent to their cellphones with GPS coordinates of the emergency crossing.
Rescue of ice anglers lasted three hours
In the end, “about 200 people were evacuated,” the police said. The action lasted three hours.
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Minnesota in the American Midwest is also known as the “land of ten thousand lakes”. Ice fishing on the frozen lakes is a popular winter activity. Police warned that “the ice is very unpredictable at the start of the season”.