600 fishermen are rescued after ice floe broke off and left them marooned while they were angling on frozen sea off of Russia
- Shocking footage shows rescuers throwing a line to anglers to help them back
- Fishermen had defied warnings of dangerous cracks in ice on Sea of Okhotsk
- Their precarious ice raft was then slowly tugged across stretch of icy water
Some 600 fishermen had to be rescued after and ice floe broke off and left them marooned while they were angling on frozen sea off the coast of Russia.
Shocking footage shows how rescuers threw a line to the anglers to help them back to shore after they defied warnings of dangerous cracks in the ice sheet on the Sea of Okhotsk.
Their precarious ice raft was then slowly tugged across a stretch of icy water off Sakhalin, Russia’s largest island which is on its Pacific coast.
Shocking footage shows how rescuers threw a line to the anglers to help them back to shore after they defied warnings of dangerous cracks in the ice sheet on the Sea of Okhotsk
The anglers on the ice raft were among 600 marooned in Mordvinov Bay after a major 35-foot crack appeared in the frozen sea
They were in danger of capsizing into the freezing sea at any moment.
The fisherman had to use makeshift paddles for the final distance before clambering onto firmer ice still attached to the shore.
The anglers on the ice raft were among 600 marooned in Mordvinov Bay after a major 35-foot crack appeared in the frozen sea.
Others still stranded are seen behind them on a giant floe waiting to be saved.
The rescue operation continued over two days to save the stranded anglers, according to local reports.
Others still stranded are seen behind them on a giant floe waiting to be saved
The last were brought off the ice floe after midnight.
The ice fissure was more than one mile out to sea.
Three boats and a hovercraft were used in the rescue.
‘Six hundred fishermen were cut off from the coast. Rescue work is in progress,’ said the Emergency Situations Ministry’s regional branch.
Only early today were all the fisherman brought back to land, reported The Siberian Times.
The rescue operation continued over two days to save the stranded anglers, according to local reports
Officials slammed the anglers for acting ‘contrary to common sense’ in defying warnings from the authorities.
Messages publicised in the media and by text message told them in advance that weather warnings had stressed that ‘going out onto the ice is extremely dangerous’.
Yet the 600 ‘decided to try their luck anyway and ventured out onto unreliable ice’, complained the Emergencies Ministry.
The authorities renewed their warning to ice fishermen for today stressing their were new dangers of cracks in the frozen sea.