Dutch courage rescues stranded horses in storm

RESCUERS on horseback lured a herd of about 100 horses off a mud-soaked patch of high ground where they had been stranded for three days and led them through receding flood waters to safe ground yesterday.

Nineteen horses had drowned or died of exposure from the days and nights on the patch of earth that was turned into an island during a storm on Tuesday night.

The plight of the horses has gripped the Netherlands after the storm surge pushed sea-water into the wilderness area outside the dikes of Marrum, a town 90 miles north-east of Amsterdam.