Rescuers lifted the bodies of two fishermen who fell through the ice from the bottom of Lake Baikal

A car with two fishermen fell through the ice of Lake Baikal in the Olkhonsky District of the Irkutsk Region. The search operation is completed, the men died, reports the regional department of the Russian Emergencies Ministry in its Telegram-channel.

"Search operations in the place of the failure of the car with people on Lake Baikal are completed. The bodies of men aged 41 and 65 have been raised to the surface and handed over to police officers," the report says.

As IrkutskMedia IA specifies, information about a possible accident was received by rescuers on January 30. Two men went to Baikal in a car "UAZ" to fish, but stopped contacting each other. The alarm was raised by acquaintances of the missing.

The rescuers found the place of failure in 70 meters from the shore near Ulan-Khada cape, and at a depth of 6 meters and the car with the men in the cabin. Six rescuers and two units of equipment of the Baikal search and rescue team of the Ministry of Emergency Situations worked at the site.

According to the center "Phobos", on average Baikal completely freezes in the first decade of January, but this season the ice cover is formed later than usual. The reason for the delay, experts say, is warmer weather than usual. Thus, in Irkutsk, 2024 became the third warmest year in the list of the warmest in the history of observations since 1873. November was warmer than the climatic norm by four degrees, and December - by three degrees.

On January 11 in Buryatia, in the delta of the Selenga River, which flows into Lake Baikal, a car fell through the ice. The depth at the site of the fall amounted to 70 centimeters. No one was injured as a result of the incident. Rescuers pulled the two men to the shore, they did not require medical assistance