About 200 people were rescued Monday after a large ice block on which they stood broke off in a lake in the US state of Minnesota. People were fishing on Upper Red Lake, a popular ice fishing location in the north of the state, when the ice suddenly broke loose, according to local authorities.
At one point the fishermen had drifted so far that in some places they were surrounded by 27 meters wide open water. The local police received several emergency calls, whereupon a team of emergency responders arrived on the scene, the police reported on Facebook. The fishermen were evacuated via a piece of ice placed over a narrow section of open water. The rescue operation took about three hours.
Sherburne County authorities warn that the ice is “very unpredictable” at the start of the season and that “extreme vigilance” is needed before people take to the ice. Several people have fallen through the ice in the area in recent days.
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