Dazed man saved from frozen lake

Dazed man saved from frozen lake

A 25-year-old American man was rescued by the US Coast Guard after he tried to walk from Detroit, in the US, to Canada across a frozen lake, officials said on Friday.

The distance from Detroit to Toronto, where he was heading, is about 321km.

The man was found on Thursday on Lake St Clair, about 2.4km from shore. The lake borders the US and Canada.

He was found by a lookout assigned to the Coast Guard Cutter Neah Bay, a 42m ice-breaking tug, Reuters reported.

"He was suffering from hypothermia and disoriented," said Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer Lauren Jorgensen.

SPOTS MAN

US Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class Scott Sjostrom spotted the man walking on the lake at about 9.30am on Thursday, reported the Daily Mail.

It was an odd sight as the man was in regular clothes and not the heavy gear used for snowmobiling or ice fishing.

He also was not carrying a flotation device and Mr Sjostrom said he could have easily broken through the ice and drowned.

"When we got to him, you could tell the cold was getting to him," said Mr Sjostrom.

"He was very lethargic ... He was shivering very badly. He also wouldn't speak at first and had a '1,000-yard stare'."

The man, who was not named, told his rescuers that he was trying to walk to Toronto.

The Canadian city, which is north-east of Detroit, is about 281km from the other side of the lake.

The lake is about 39km from east to west.

The man had no form of communication, said the Coast Guard, and was carrying just a backpack with food and clothes, a sleeping bag and a tarp, which is like a waterproof sheet used to make a basha or makeshift tent.

The man told the Coast Guard that he had left Detroit about two nights earlier and had spent last Wednesday night in the Crib Lighthouse on Lake St. Clair.

He was taken to a hospital.


This article was first published on March 10, 2015.
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