Some 150 fishermen were rescued from an ice floe in Ohio's Lake Erie yesterday after it broke loose from the shore due to warmer weather.
One fisherman fell through the ice during the four-hour rescue effort and died on the way to a hospital, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
Another man who fell through the ice was not injured.
The Coast Guard, which used boats and helicopters to rescue the men, said it was surveying the area to see if there were other people on floes.
The ice broke shortly after 10:30 a.m. EST, an official for the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department said.
The fishermen were near Crane Creek State Park on the western shore of Lake Erie in northern Ohio when the floe drifted into the lake.
The temperature in the area was around 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) on Saturday morning, up from a low of 7 degrees Fahrenheit (-14 degrees Celsius) on Friday morning.
Early reports had the number of fisherman stranded on the ice as high as 500.
Reuters