Canadian police ended up pursuing a suspect attempting to flee the alleged scene of a crime on an ice floe.

Earlier this week, the Royal Canadian Mounted police of Prince George, a city in British Columbia, were called to the scene of an alleged home invasion in a nearby rural community. By the time they arrived, the suspect had already taken off in a pickup truck.

Police managed to track down the vehicle she was driving, but the suspect was nowhere to be seen. With just one road leading in and out of the community, a police tracking dog homed in on what police described as the suspect’s alternate escape route.

“She was located on a piece of ice in the Nechako river, which, at the best of times, is a dangerous place, much less in winter with all the ice,” the RCMP’s Craig Douglass told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The ice floe – and the suspect – were about two kilometres along the river from where police had found the truck.

She had started a fire on the ice, which police believed might have been an attempt to destroy evidence. The ice floe was close enough to shore, said police, that they were able to reach the suspect from land and make an arrest. “It’s definitely a first,” said Douglass. “It’s something we’ve never come across and probably will never again in our careers.”

A 25-year-old woman faces several charges over the incident, including break-and-enter and mischief.