A 17-year-old boy has rescued a man after the car he was driving in with his dog plummeted off a bridge and broke through the icy surface of a lake.
The incident took place in Iowa as the north and western parts of the country are frozen by an arctic blast that has brought dangerously frigid temperatures over the past week.
Thomas Lee, 83, and his dog Cooper, 6, were trapped inside the Jeep after Lee drove it off the Highway 71 bridge on East Okoboji Lake, Dickinson County, US, at around 3pm (9pm GMT) on Saturday, February 4.
Lucky for them, teenager Joe Salmon was ice fishing nearby along with his mother, while watching snowmobile races.
Joe and a few other people ran to the rescue of Mr Lee and his dog, Cooper, and within a few minutes managed to drag them both to safety.
Mr Lee, who was heading to his son-in-law's fishing shack at the time, said: "I want to thank the people who helped and the store that took the dog in and dried him off."
Corey McConnell, 30; Kody Harrelson, 26; Cody Chester, 27; and Chris Parks, 27; also helped pull the man and dog to safety.
It is estimated the lake is 3-4 feet deep at the location where the Jeep broke through, and the car was near the bottom by the time help arrived.
Mr Lee appeared to be in shock as Joe and the four others told him to get out of the car. Joe shattered the glass at the rear of the car and scooped the dog out first. By that time, the water was already up to the driver's waist.
Joe, a wrestler, football player and track runner, later told Des Moines Register : "I took one step and [the water] went to about my chest.
"I got on the bumper of the rear and tried opening the back door, but all the windows were locked, but one guy gave me a knife and I hit the back glass a couple of times."
He explained that Mr Lee's foot was stuck between the seat and the centre console, so he had to pull the console up to release him.
Mr Lee wasn't injured but was transported to Lakes Regional Healthcare for observation.
Joe was examined by the ambulance crew for minor cuts from the glass and received dry clothes from the Okoboji Store.
Following the incident, the boy went back to fishing and even caught two.
He said: "I'm happy that he was OK and the dog was OK. It was just crazy at the time. I've never done anything like that."
During the rescue, Joe lost his shoes in the water. A tweet from the Okoboji High School boys' track team tried to get Nike to replace the shoes.
Nike hasn't chimed in yet, but ESPN's Marty Smith pledged to send a pair of Jordans. Joe also received an offer from the Track Guy Foundation.
Video footage courtesy of drone photographer tom.gustafson on Instagram, and on Facebook.
