Vlad Pokrovski's £5,000 Lada Priora had been left parked up in a small ditch in sub-zero temperatures
A motorist had the shock of his life when he woke up to find his car frozen solid in a huge block of ice after leaving it parked up during a blizzard .
Vlad Pokrovski, 32, had left his £5,000 Lada Priora parked in a small ditch on the side of the street outside his block of flats in the city of Saratov, Russia.
When he came back to the car the next day he was stunned to see it frozen solid to above the level of the wheels, after the ditch had filled with water overnight.
Vlad, along with his friends and neighbours, set about trying to hack his way through the thick ice in an attempt to free the car.
But after an hour chipping away in temperatures of -30C, they gave up.
He said: "We tried pouring hot water over it but that just froze and made it worse. We then tried hacking the ice away with spades and knives, but it is so hard some of them broke."
He then called a local car garage to see if they could help, and was told it would be a waste of time.
Garage owner Andrey Teliatev said: "I’m not even sure its worth trying to get free. The engine will be dead from being flooded and I don’t think it can be repaired.
"In fact, repairing it would cost about the same as getting a new one."
Glum Vlad said: "I can’t believe this. If I hadn’t parked in that ditch this would never have happened, but who would have thought it?
"I guess the snow must have melted and then when the temperatures fell froze."