ST.PETERSBURG, July 17 (RIA Novosti) - A four-hectare floating island in a reservoir shared by Russia and Estonia was destroyed on Friday, after it approached high-voltage cables leading to a hydropower plant, a local power utility said.
Floating islands, consisting mainly of peat and aquatic plants, are a common phenomenon in the Narva Resevoir, as large areas of peat bog were flooded during its creation in the 1950s.
The island, which had trees up to 12 meters high, had alarmed authorities when it drifted across the border dividing the reservoir in June, and got stuck near power lines, threatening the work of the Narva Hydroelectric Station.
"The floating island, which had been monitored by both citizens and authorities on the Russian and Estonian shores of the Narva River for several weeks, has seized to exist," the TGK-1 utility's press service said in a statement.
When the island approached the reservoir dam at 13.30 (09:30 GMT), the sluice gates were opened and the island "was destroyed within 15 minutes," the statement said.
