TWO motorists have been rescued by an unlikely bunch of towel-clad sauna users after a parking manoeuvre went wrong and submerged their car into freezing waters.
Stunned witnesses saw the Tesla suddenly speed-up and end up in the Norwegian fjord, before the panicked passenger and driver climbed on to the car’s roof as it began to sink.
“When the car ended up in the water, two people were, it appears, inside,” Oslo police wrote on Twitter. “They were pulled from the water by a floating sauna.”
In the video the car can be seen sinking into the freezing fjord just as a floating sauna pulled up and bought the people safely on board.
“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 newspaper Norwegian daily VG.
“With the help of two guests, we pulled them up. They were able to warm up in the sauna.”
The owner, who has not been named, told the newspaper he thought the car was in park mode when he hit the accelerator.
He added: “They saved our lives, it drove out into the water. It was a terrible feeling.”
Vladislav Nikirov watched the bizarre scenes and said it was lucky that someone came to help them. “If there hadn’t been people there, I’m afraid of what could have happened, they could have died,” he said.
Battery-powered wooden sauna boats are a popular attraction at the fjord, allowing people to take part in the popular Scandinavian hobby while enjoying the natural beauty of the water – along with the chance to take a plunge in the icy depths.
Much better than just ploughing your car straight into the water.