Five German tourists have been rescued from an ice floe in Sweden’s Stockholm archipelago after attempting to construct a floating sauna.
Waves from a passing passenger ferry stranded the DIY vessel in waters near Värmdö island on Sunday. According to Swedish authorities, the tourists had “sawn loose” an ice floe and kitted it out with a makeshift sauna, an outboard motor, a stand-up paddleboard and a GoPro camera.
The crew of the passing ferry pulled four of the stranded tourists to safety, later retrieving the fifth, who had stayed behind to collect equipment.
All those onboard the “floating sauna” were returned safely to Stavsnäs, a nearby harbour village.
Karolina Wichman, a spokesperson for Stockholm transport administration, told The Guardian: “We believe they had sawn loose an ice floe and gone out on it.
“It was calm weather on Sunday, there was no wind. All vessels that pass through this area drive very calm and still. But ice is affected by boats in the area.”
Wichman added: “In Stockholm, and also wider Sweden, it is mostly ice-skaters who, for different reasons, end up in need of help at sea or fall through the ice. This was quite a spectacular sight.”
A ferry passenger who witnessed the event, Johan Axberg, told Swedish broadcaster SVT: “I wondered if they really knew what they were doing, but they didn't.”
Axberg said: “The boat drove carefully through the ice, but it was broken up by the waves, and the ice floe drifted away. So they went out and started picking them from the ice floe, because the ice floe was breaking up more and more.”
Read more: Orcas sink tourist yacht off Portugal’s coast in latest attack
