Three men and a women fled East Germany Sunday by swimming across a river to West Berlin, narrowly avoiding a patrol boat and clambering up a river bank to safety, news reports and West Berlin officials said. West Berlin police said the woman in the group injured a foot in the early evening swim of about 260 feet across Berlin's Spree River. The others were uninjured. West Germany's ARD television showed video footage of the escapees swimming the last 10 feet to the West Berlin bank just as the East German patrol boat approached a few yards away. ARD said the film was taken by a Briton who happened to be on the western bank at the time. The report did not provide the names of the escapees or of the person taping the scene. The Wall separating communist East Berlin from West Berlin is located on the eastern side of the river at the spot where the escape took place. However, the western bank of the river is the actual border, with the water in East Berlin territory. A West Berlin police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said East German border guards did not shoot or otherwise attempt to stop the escapees. No shots were fired from the patrol boat. Police said they did not know how the four got past the Wall, which is 10 feet high in most sections. The three western sectors of Berlin are controlled by the United States, Britain and France. East Berlin is the Soviet sector of the city, which is located 110 miles east of the West German border.
