“We’ve just been told that one person has been brought up from the water. He is in critical condition,” said Emma Ekdahl from the county police in Jämtland to news agency TT late on Thursday evening.
At shortly after 10pm the search for the second man was halted.
“The police will take over now, but I don’t think they will do so much tonight, as it is dark and there is bad visibility in the area,” aid Leif Nordin of the emergency services in Östersund to TT.
Weak ice made it almost impossible for the emergency staff to do their work as it kept breaking around them.
“There really is nothing more we can do here and we believe one of the men is still in the water,” said head of the local emergency services Bengt Swedberg to local paper Östersundsposten.
Five snowmobiles had been on the ice when the incident occurred close to Rönnöfors, between the lakes of Rönnögsjön and Landögsjön.
When the ice broke under the vehicles, two of the snowmobiles and their drivers fell through into the icy waters. One man in his early twenties is still missing,and presumed dead.
The other, a man in his late twenties, has been brought by helicopter to Östersund’s hospital, believed to be suffering from acute hypothermia.
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