German man lost on frozen sea saved by beach webcam

A man who lost his way in the dark while wandering around on sea ice off the coast of Germany was saved by a woman 300 miles away who spotted him on a webcam, according to police.

The un-named man, in his forties, had ventured out on the frozen North Sea at the resort of St Peter-Ording on the northern tip of Germany to take pictures of the sunset, but became disorientated when darkness fell.

“He got lost on the ice and could not find the coast again because it was covered in snow,” Kristin Stielow, a spokeswoman for the local police said.



The man began to flash his pocket torch in the hope of being rescued. The beams were picked up by a sharp-eyed woman 500 km away in western Germany who had also been watching the sunset via a webcam, (it's not working for me), installed on the beach.

She alerted the police, who were able to guide the hapless amateur photographer to safety.

“He escaped without injury but could well have died from cold or been injured on the ice or drowned when the tide came in,” Ms Stielow said.