TIMMENDORFER STRAND — A humpback whale swam free from a sandbank overnight after rescuers cut an escape route at Timmendorfer Strand. The whale swam through the escape channel that rescuers had dug on Thursday using an excavator.

The whale was first spotted stuck on an underwater sandbank in Timmendorfer Strand on Monday morning. Initial efforts to free the whale and coax it back toward deeper water using coast guard and fire department boats to create large waves were unsuccessful.

Rescuers used an excavator on Thursday to dig an escape channel in front of the whale. Rescuers worked until well after sunset on Thursday but were unable to free the whale before stopping work for the night.

Early on Friday morning, the whale was on its way out of Lübeck Bay. On Friday morning, the whale was about 300 meters off the coast. The whale was accompanied by a coast guard ship and several boats on Friday morning.

The Baltic Sea lacks strong tides that could have freed the whale. The whale appeared to be the same individual that had been spotted several times in the port of Wismar in recent weeks.

Humpback whales are not native to the Baltic Sea. The whale is a marine mammal that is 12 to 15 meters long. It was not immediately clear why the whale was in the area and became stranded.

Male humpback whales, unlike females, tend to migrate. The whale faces a journey of several hundred kilometers through German and Danish waters to reach the North Sea.