A dog has been rescued after it became stranded on an ice floe and was carried more than 100km down a river and into the Baltic Sea.
Polish firefighters first witnessed the trapped dog on the Vistula River but were unable to rescue it before it floated away.
Later, a Polish meterological institute was carrying out studies on the boat Baltica when the dog drifted past.
"My officers saw the dog on the port side of the boat," said senior officer Jan Joachim.
"A shape was moving and we immediately decided to get closer to check if it was a dog or maybe a seal relaxing on the ice.
"As we got closer to the ice we saw that it was a dog struggling not to fall into the water."
Ship engineer Adam Buczynski used an inflatable dinghy to rescue the dog.
"It was obvious that the dog was very weak, he almost went under the surface of the water so I grabbed the dog, put him in the inflatable and returned to the ship," he said.
"Once there he was taken by colleagues … and we tucked him into a warm blanket."
Poland is currently in the grip of an icy winter, with temperatures falling to as low as -34C at night.
Front page
RSS Feed