(Bergen Newspaper): On Saturday morning, emergency services moved to Nordsvannet after reports that a ferry had capsized.
Then 8 people got stuck in the boat.
– People under the age of 20 were not wearing life jackets or other flotation devices when the boat capsized. Melter got involved and boarded the boat to contact emergency services. When we were called, they must have been lying in the water for about 15 minutes, says Stine Mjelde, operations manager at the Western Police District, to BA at 0930.
All 8 have now come ashore and are undergoing medical treatment.
No life jackets
They received an emergency call shortly before 0900 on Saturday morning.
All available resources were sent to the scene as soon as the alarm was raised, including the air ambulance, boats, police, fire and health services.
– A police patrol catches a boat and disembarks eight people. They must have been about 250 meters from shore, says Stine Mjelde.
Police contacted them at around 0915.
– They were cold, but everyone is safe. Operations manager says they are connected to health on the spot.
No missing persons reported. The police are yet to clarify how the boat sank in the water. The sequence of events is still unknown and it is not known why the boat capsized.
Several boats rushed to the spot and rescued the unfortunate eight from the water.
All boat and helicopter resources were withdrawn once it was known that all eight had made it ashore.
– There must have been an accident
Has been in touch with BA Fana Roklubb. Coach George Lund denies his club’s involvement in the capsizing.
– Lund tells PA that the police have borrowed an inflatable boat with a trailer from us, so they’ll be there soon.
– How easy it is to mark one
– It’s not that easy, so an accident must have happened. We consider an eight-berth boat as safe as we use. But clearly it works, Lund says.
– Don’t know what to expect
Christian Meyer, operations chief of the Western Police District, said it was a group of women from a student union who were training.
– At one point they stopped the boat for some practice called regatta start. As a result, the boat loses its balance and capsizes.
The mayor says the young women alerted the fire service, who in turn alerted emergency services. The first message they received that eight people had drowned was taken seriously.
– We didn’t know what to expect after the first message, so we were initially with a lot of resources. Police were on the move with four patrols, and firefighters arrived with divers and a boat.
In addition, the air ambulance headed towards Nordåsvannet, but this was canceled when the police arrived on the scene. None of the young women were injured after the fall, but the operations manager admits the water could have been a little cold.
– They lay there in the boat for 15 minutes, so they froze a little. But we had cars ready with warm and warm clothes and we put them in, Meyer concludes.
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