Soldiers pull yaks to the bank. (Chinanews/Li Yanjie)

22 yaks belonging to a local herdsman fell into the frozen Donggi Conag Lake in northwestern China’s Qinghai Province while drinking water on the bank on Nov. 14, 2014.

The site of the accident is 150 kilometers away from Maduo county. When officers and soldiers of the fire department of Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Golog came to the site, the 22 yaks in the lake had all been dead. The herdsman had no idea how to deal with the situation so he called the fire department for help.

The soldiers first had to break the ice since all the fallen yaks were completely frozen to the surface of the lake. To helping getting out of the yaks, the soldiers had to get into the frozen water, and using fire axes and crowbars to crush the ice. With the help of rescue vehicles, they finally pulled all the yaks to the bank.

After two hours of “icebreaking war”, all the 22 yaks had been brought ashore.