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Two people have drowned after breaking through ice in separate incidents since Friday in the Twin Cities.

That’s as a stretch of unseasonably mild weather continues across the state, raising concerns about deteriorating ice conditions on lakes, ponds and rivers.

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office said a man and a boy broke through ice just before 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Bass Pond in Bloomington — in the Minnesota River valley, east of Highway 77.

Bloomington firefighters were able to rescue the man, who was clinging to the ice — but crews could not locate the child. Search teams using an airboat and sonar found his body a couple of hours later, in about 8 feet of water.

Authorities have not released the name and age of the boy who died or further details on the circumstances of the incident.

A day earlier, on Friday afternoon, a man broke through ice while walking on the Mississippi River near the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. 

A woman saw what happened and “attempted to go out after the man but fell through the ice as well. She was able to make it back to shore,” the sheriff’s office reported. She was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Minneapolis police and fire were the first agencies to reach the scene, and they were not able to locate the man. Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office Water Patrol units then tried using sonar but could not locate him before nightfall.

The search resumed Saturday morning, and crews located the man’s body just before noon, about 75 feet from where he broke through in about 9 feet of water. His name has not been released.

Water Patrol units were just clearing that scene, when they got the call about the Bloomington incident.

“This tragic incident is a stark example that the ice is never 100 percent safe,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. “Please use caution when venturing on to lakes, rivers and ponds, especially with our changing weather.”

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Andrew Krueger

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Two people have drowned after breaking through ice in separate incidents over the weekend in the Twin Cities. That’s as a stretch of unseasonably mild weather continues across the state, raising concerns about deteriorating ice conditions on lakes, ponds and rivers.

Two people drown after breaking through ice in Twin Cities

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