MOSCOW, January 4 (RIA Novosti) – A car fell through the ice on Lake Baikal in Siberia on Saturday morning, emergency officials said, leaving two of the three people inside missing after one escaped from the water.
The man who climbed out is on the lake’s ice and a rescue team is working to save his life, the Emergency Situations Ministry’s regional center in Siberia said.
The statement said that the other two men in the Russian-made Lada Niva off-road vehicle had likely drowned after the car plunged into the lake in the Severo-Baikalsky district of Buryatia.
Lake Baikal, the oldest and most voluminous lake in the world, curves for nearly 400 miles through southeastern Siberia. The lake is covered with ice for nearly five months per year, but usually freezes only in late December or January. It is considered save to drive cars on the lake only when the ice is at least 30 cm thick.
