Two men drowned in the world's largest freshwater lake by volume, Siberia's Lake Baikal, after they drove out onto the ice on an early springtime fishing trip and their van plunged through the surface, Russian authorities said Thursday.
When the men failed to return home, rescuers embarked Monday on what would become a three-day search, the Emergency Situations Ministry said in an online statement.
Rescuers followed vehicle tracks that led them to the spot where the fishermen's UAZ van had sunk to the bottom of the lake about two kilometers from the shore. The windshield was broken and the doors were open, the statement said.
The first man's body was brought to the surface on Wednesday night, and the second on Thursday morning. The men had been fishing with nets about 18 kilometers from the shore, and their vehicle had apparently fallen through the ice on their way back to dry land.
