A rescue team in Russia's Far East needed much persuasion to save 440 anglers, from drifting off on ice floes, the Echo Moskwy radio station reported Saturday, reported the Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa. Dozens of anglers had refused for hours to climb into the helicopters' rescue baskets off Sakhalin island because they were not allowed to take their ice drills and other bulky pieces of equipment. Only the onset of darkness had convinced the last of the anglers to abandon their possessions on the ice floes drifting off into the open sea. Three helicopters and five boats had come to the anglers' rescue. Nobody was injured during the rescue operation, the civil defence said in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
