Two Hundred People Swept to Sea

29 Mar 2013
By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News
        More than 200 people were swept about three miles out to sea on two large ice floes off the coast of Latvia, an official said Friday. A rescue operation managed to save all 223 people caught on the ice as they drifted out into the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea, State Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Victoria Sembele said by phone.
       Friday is a national holiday in Latvia and many were fishing through holes cut in the sea ice when two large sections broke off at about 12:30 p.m. local time (6:30 a.m. ET), Sembele said.
“Nobody fell in the sea … it’s very lucky for those people who were there,” she said.