At least 27 people were rescued from a floating chunk of ice that broke away from shore in the bay of Green Bay in eastern Wisconsin on Saturday.

In a statement on Sunday, the Brown County Sheriff’s Office said many of the 27 people rescued were ice fishing at the time of the incident and no injuries were reported. 

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The chunk of ice broke from the shoreline off Point Comfort and multiple people were on the separated ice shove for about 90 minutes.

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Authorities believe a barge traveling through the bay may have caused the ice chunk to break off the shoreline.

“It is believed a barge that had gone through the Bay shortly before the ice breakage may have contributed to the destabilization of the ice,” the sheriff’s office said.

“Although the chunk of ice remained fairly stable, its condition was deteriorating rapidly (and) cracking up as it moved with the open water pounding at the edge of it,” the office added.

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Shane Nelson, who was making his first ice fishing excursion, said the noise sounded like somebody had fired a gun.

“We thought it was interesting, got out of our shanty, took a look and people were yelling on the ice, ‘We’re separating,’” Nelson told WLUK TV.

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Airboats from the Brown County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Coast Guard were able to rescue eight passengers at a time.

(With inputs from The Associated Press)