Impressive: frozen river overflowed and destroyed river promenade in Russia

It happened on the Amur river.

Huge blocks of ice have fallen in the last hours of river of love and destroyed part of a river promenade located on the coast of Khabarovsk, Siberia, Russia, demolishing a metal barrier reinforced with concrete and nearly crushing the people who had gathered to watch.

Dramatic footage of the incident was captured by local residents with cell phones and went viral within hours due to the shock: huge blocks of ice encroaching on the promenade.

Another angle shows the incident from above.

The phenomenon takes several names in English: from “ice cream drift” to “ice jam”, and refers to the point at which rising temperatures and growing rivers cause the thick winter ice cover that has previously covered them to decompose. Spring causes the ice to crack and the water circulation to reactivate. When large blocks of ice are washed up on the banks, where the river flows less intensely, internal flow pressure pushes them inland.

The local leadership of the Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed Sputnik that a working group has been sent to the site and that there were no civilians in danger.

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The ice is believed to originate from the headwaters of the Amur, the mighty river that forms the border between Russia’s Far East and northeast China. It is said that this type of phenomenon occurs annually, although ice piles usually occur outside of urban areas. The spectacle is frequent in other parts of Siberia and the world.

Conditions this year look exceptional, according to local meteorologists and environmentalists: there was more ice and the river was carrying more water than usual at this time of year. A harsh winter and a spring with very high temperatures (24 ° C) accelerated the process, leading to more abrupt accidents.

This is not the first time this year that the river has shown its power to residents. Last week, another block of ice pushed three ships out of a port in Khabarovsk and carried them downstream. Two of the boats, a pair of tugs, traveled several miles before being caught on a sandbank near the coast.

Khabarovsk is on the bank of the Amur river, one of the ten longest in the world and also one of the biggest.