Six fishermen rescued in Vitebsk region over the past weekend

March 26, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. Six fishermen were rescued over the past weekend in the Vitebsk region, Marina Fando, press secretary of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, told a BELTA correspondent. In the Lepel district, the Ministry of Emergency Situations received a report from an eyewitness on the shore of Lake Zhezhilino about a drowning person. Rescuers who arrived at the scene found four people in an inflatable boat 100 meters from the shore. As it turned out, a resident of a nearby village was fishing with her brother, who then fell into an ice hole. Two fishermen who were nearby and had an inflatable boat for safety rushed to help. After pulling the drowning man out of the water, they placed the man and his sister in the boat, and also got into it themselves, as the ice began to break under their weight. With the help of two rescue shields and an Alexander rope, rescuers pulled the fishermen ashore. The injured man, diagnosed with general hypothermia, was taken to the Lepel hospital, but refused hospitalization. The help of rescuers was also needed by two men fishing on Lake Drivyaty in the Braslav district. Having called the Ministry of Emergency Situations, they reported that the ice under them had begun to break and they were afraid to get out on their own. With the help of specialists from the Braslav rescue post of the Belarusian Voluntary Society for the Rescue of People on Water (OSVOD), the fishermen reached a safe section of ice and were not injured. In total, over the past week, two cases of fishermen drowning occurred on the waters of the Vitebsk region - on Lake Lukomlskoye in Chashniki and in the Postavy district. 65 people, including 3 children, received warnings. Currently, active processes of rivers and lakes opening from ice have begun in the region, in connection with which OSVOD specialists recommend that fishermen refrain from ice fishing, and also remind parents of the danger of children being near reservoirs. -0-