OAK HARBOR, Ohio - A kilometers-wide ice floe broke away from Lake Erie's shoreline yesterday, trapping more than 100 fishermen, some for as long as four hours. One person fell into the water and later died.

The rest of the 100 to 125 fishermen were safe by late afternoon yesterday; many were plucked from the ice by rescuers who glided along in air boats.

"We were in no danger," said Norb Pilaczynski of Swanton, Ohio, who was rescued from the lake along with several of his friends. "We knew there was enough ice out there."

Earlier in the morning, fishermen used wooden pallets to bridge a crack in the ice so they could go out farther on the lake. But temperatures rose above freezing, and the planks fell into the water when the ice shifted, stranding the fishermen about 1,000 yards offshore.

The person who died fell into the water while searching with others for a link to the shoreline, Ottawa County Sheriff Bob Bratton said. Others tried CPR before the person was flown to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said.

"We get people out here who don't know how to read the ice," Bratton said. "What happened here today was just idiotic. I don't know how else to put it."

- AP