Terrifying moment as an elderly fisherman, 77, floats on a piece of ice that broke out into a raging river at -20 degrees Celsius
STUNNING footage shows the moment an elderly pensioner was thrown from a piece of floating ice into freezing water.
77-year-old retiree Nikolai Tereshkov was floating on a piece of ice when it collided with a bridge support in the Yenisei River, Siberia.
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The ice floe shattered on impact and the grandfather was thrown into the water.
Earlier images showed how the fisherman had drifted downstream after the river ice where he was fishing broke away from the bank.
A major search was launched for him in the city of Krasnoyarsk after his wife raised the alarm when she realized his phone was not working.
CCTV Today, footage emerged showing the fisherman's ice floe hitting the bridge support and falling apart.
Those leading the rescue mission said the fisherman had virtually no chance of escape.
Nighttime temperatures in Krasnoyarsk were minus 24 degrees Celsius when he got lost.
Drivers have searched the river and have not yet found his body, although he is believed to be dead.
More searches will be conducted on Tuesday.
A local report said: “The unfortunate fisherman was simply standing on the ice floe.
“He had no chance to save himself from the inevitable.
“Then the ice collides with a bridge support and the man falls into the icy water.”
Unlike most Siberian rivers, the Yenesei river surface around the city of Krasnoyarsk does not freeze in mid-winter due to a large hydroelectric power station upstream.
The Yenisei and its tributary, the Selenga, form a river system 5,000 km long.
It is the largest river flowing into the river Arctic Ocean, about 2,000 kilometers north of the city of Krasnoyarsk.
Further north of the river, towards the Arctic Ocean, the surface is frozen and has become a hub for ice fishing in winter.
The news follows a long string of deaths in this part of the US Russiamost of which took place in winter.
In 2019, 19 people tragically died when their bus plunged off a bridge into a frozen river.
The dead included two children and the bus driver.
And just a year later, a teenager froze to death in icy weather after his navigation system prompted him to take a wrong turn in Siberia.
The Russian was found frozen after getting stuck on a deserted road.
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