Locals and tourists rushed to collect it.

The shoreline in the town of Pionersky, in the Kaliningrad region, was left covered in pieces of amber after a severe storm hit the Baltic Sea.

Despite freezing cold conditions people waded into the sea with nets or combed the the beach, picking the small and medium sized pieces of amber strewn among seaweed and sand.

The unusual gift came during the Orthodox Christmas Eve and will help people out during the country's current economic crisis.