ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Two British adventurers have abandoned their attempt to drive a customized amphibious vehicle across the ice and open water of the Bering Strait to Russia, a spokeswoman says.

Russian border authorities had threatened to arrest them, so Steve Brooks and Graham Stratford halted their journey Sunday near the U.S.-Russian frontier in the middle of the strait, said Celia Carey, who has been filming the endeavor.

"It looks like permissions are not going to come," Carey said in a telephone interview from Wales, the Alaskan town closest to Russia at 56 miles.

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The men returned to Little Diomede island. They had started their Ice Challenger trek from the mainland on Friday and reached Little Diomede on Saturday.

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