Video from 1920s shows crowd play chicken with huge ice breaker in Finland

The images are part of a documentary released in 2008.

Old black and white footage from the 1920s shows people running across a frozen river just yards from the hull of an ice breaker, in Helsinki, Finland.

An ice breaker is a ship designed to move through ice-covered water in order to provide safe routes for other vessels.

The images above are the opening scenes in the 2008 documentary by Peter von Bagh called “Helsinki Forever”.

In the video, thrill-seekers are seen running on the ice while the huge vessel crashes through the thick ice towards them. A cyclist can be seen carefully moving out of the way just before a motorbike speeds past the surface.

Mr von Bagh, who died in 2014, was a Finnish film historian and director with an interest for the history and culture of Finland.

According to the Finnish Institute in London, which had previously screened his work, the documentary “Helsinki Forever” was a breakthrough for Mr von Bagh, "a film that drew on decades of filmmaking, writing, researching and curating”.