WASHINGTON: About 200 early-season ice fishers were caught by surprise and stranded in a Minnesota lake when the frozen slab under their feet broke free and drifted into open water -- triggering a complex rescue operation.
A member of the group called emergency services Monday when they realized the people ice fishing -- a popular winter sport in the northern US state known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes -- were slowly drifting away from the shoreline of Upper Red Lake, local police said on Facebook.
“The Beltrami County Sheriff´s Office and other first responders arrived on scene and discovered a large portion of the ice with up to 30 yards of open water stranding the fishermen,” Chief Deputy Jarrett Walton said in a statement. Some of the group had not even realized the ice floe had snapped free.