Swedish icebreaker to join Antarctic rescue mission

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- A Swedish icebreaker has left for Antarctica to help rescue 107 people aboard a German ship trapped by an ice drift, a Swedish official said Saturday.

The Oden icebreaker left its Baltic Sea port on Friday and will take five weeks to reach the stranded Magdalena Oldendorff on the other side of the globe, said Anders Backman, Swedish Maritime Administration spokesman.

Another icebreaker from Argentina and a South African boat carrying supplies already are heading toward the stranded ship, whose passengers and crew have been rationing food while awaiting rescue.

The German ship's owners requested that the Oden, Sweden's largest icebreaker, join the rescue operation in case the Argentinian boat fails to cut a path through the ice.

The Magdalena Oldendorff was carrying 79 Russian scientists and 28 crew members to Cape Town from the Novolazarevskaya station in Antarctica when an ice drift forced it to take shelter in a bay.

If the rescue ships cannot reach the trapped vessel, two helicopters aboard the South African vessel, the Agulhas, will remove the scientists and nonessential crew members.