Woman missing after going into icy Alaska river to save dog

The woman disappeared along the North Fork Eagle River Trail, 20 miles from Anchorage, on Saturday

Search teams are resuming their efforts on 26 December to find a missing woman in Alaska (Channel 2)

A search is expected to resume on Tuesday for a missing woman who plunged into a frozen river to save her dog, authorities said.

The woman and a man were walking on North Fork Eagle River Trail, around 20 miles from Anchorage, Alaska, on Saturday afternoon when the incident happened.

The woman “entered an open spot of water on the Eagle River and disappeared under the ice,” Austin McDaniel, communications director of the Alaska State Troopers, said.

“That was the last she was seen by the adult male that was with her,” he said, according to NBC News. The pair have not been identified.

An aerial and ground search was carried out until darkness fell on Saturday and resumed on Christmas Eve. Divers cut through the ice to use sonar devices in the hopes of locating the missing woman.

Mr McDaniel called the woman’s disappearance a “tragic event”, adding that law enforcement’s focus was on finding her “so the family can have some closure”.

He urged people to be cautious on the ice.

“If you’re going to be on any frozen lakes, rivers, other type of waterways, make sure you know the depth of the ice,” Mr McDaniel said.

“With the interesting winter we’ve been having in Southcentral, Alaska, there could be a substantial amount of snow on top of very thin ice.”