Two motorists whose car plunged into the freezing Oslo fjord escaped unharmed when a floating sauna came to their rescue, Norwegian police have said.
A video clip filmed by witnesses and obtained by Agence France-Presse on Thursday appears to shows the vehicle, a Tesla, partially submerged in the water, with its occupants sitting on the roof.
“When the car ended up in the water, two people were, it appears, inside,” Oslo police wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “They were pulled from the water by a floating sauna.”
Several floating saunas are available for hire on the Oslo fjord, both stationary and motorised.
In the video images, the car can be seen sinking under the water just as the floating sauna pulls up next to it, as people on the sauna boat pluck the motorists from the frigid waters.
“One of the guests came running and told me a car had landed in the water. I accelerated to full speed in the direction of the people,” the sauna boat’s ‘skipper’, Nicholay Nordahl, told Norwegian daily VG. “With the help of two guests, we pulled them up. They were able to warm up in the sauna.”
The owner of the car, who was not identified by name, said he had thought the car was in park when he hit the accelerator pedal.
“They saved our lives,” he told VG. “It drove out into the water. It was a terrible feeling.”
The car itself was also retrieved from the water – by a tow truck.