Teen goes with the floe down the Mississippi

updated 9:49 p.m. ET March 20, 2007

ANOKA, Minn. - A teenager got an unexpected, terrifying ride down the Mississippi River on a giant slab of ice that broke off as he stood along the shoreline.

Amos Benjamin Cohen, 19, stood frozen with fear as the 6-foot-by-15-foot ice chunk swirled in the water, floating toward shore then drifting back to the middle of the river, witnesses and rescuers said.

"He stood there so still," like the Statue of Liberty, said Sue Hillberg who spotted him from her mother's kitchen window.

Ellie Ghostley said she yelled to the boy that she was calling 911, then hopped in her car to see if he would get out all right.

"I don't want to ever see that again," she said.

A rescue team from the Anoka-Champlin Fire Department sent three firefighters in survival suits into the water. As Cohen approached, one of the firefighters managed to hop up onto the ice with him. The other two pulled them to safety, Fire Chief Charlie Thompson said.

David Luna, who witnessed the rescue, said Cohen "was just shaking and shaking and shaking" after he was brought to shore. He was taken to a local hospital for observation but later released.

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