The 10-hour rescue operation near Lake Siemianowskie in Poland’s northeastern Podlaskie province was completed successfully in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Polish officials used an unmanned aerial vehicle to determine the exact location of where the migrants were stuck in the swamp near the Belarusian border, before evacuating them in a military helicopter, reporters were told.
Several of the migrants had to be hospitalised, the PAP news agency reported.
Katarzyna Zdanowicz, a spokeswoman for Polish borders guards in Podlaskie province, told a media briefing: “The group comprised 10 people: eight citizens of Sri Lanka, a Pakistani national and a citizen of India.”
She added: “Four of them were taken to a hospital and the others were taken to a Border Guard station in the village of Narewka.”
Polish border guards were alerted that a group of men had become stranded in a swamp after 6 p.m. on Monday.
Border Guard patrols were dispatched to the wetlands near Lake Siemianowskie, but the terrain proved difficult to traverse and the agency enlisted the help of territorial army (WOT) soldiers equipped with a drone, as well as firemen and volunteers, officials told reporters.
The migrants were located thanks to aerial images from the drone and a rescue team made up of border guards and firefighters reached them around 11 p.m., the PAP news agency reported.
The Border Guard spokeswoman told the media: “Everyone, both the foreigners and Polish officials, were exhausted and there was no possibility to make a safe return. And so a military helicopter was called to action and over the course of two flights, it evacuated everyone, both the migrants and the rescuers.”
The helicopter landed in the village of Semianówka, after which ambulances took four of the migrants to the hospital, according to officials.
The rescue operation, which featured some 80 people, was completed after 4 a.m. on Tuesday, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, strazgraniczna.pl, poranny.pl