As Russia puts the finishing touches to the carefully manicured fields that will host the World Cup from next week, people around the globe are playing soccer on a surprising variety of makeshift pitches. Off the coast of an island in southern Thailand, they play on a floating platform; in the mountains of northern Italy, they kick about in the snow – images captured by Reuters photographers around the world. Here: Local residents play soccer on the top floor of a parking garage in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 4, 2018. (Photo by Darren Whiteside/Reuters)

China Airlines stewardess Wang Wen Hwang leaps from the burning China Airlines plane after assisting the passengers to safety February 27, 1980. Miss Wang saved most of the lives of the passengers despite her injuries. She was the last to leave the planes. (Photo by AP Photo)

Cambridge students the morning after the Trinity and Jesus college May Balls in Cambridge, United Kingdom on June 19, 2018. Students at Cambridge University celebrate the end of the academic year with the May Balls. (Photo by South West News Service)

Fans gather to watch a FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 football match between Brazil and Costa Rica on a giant screen at Alzirao neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 22, 2018. (Photo by Carl De Souza/AFP Photo)

A municipal worker sits on a bench, next to a statue, in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, during the 2018 soccer World Cup, Thursday, June 28, 2018. Nizhny Novgorod was a “closed city” during the Soviet era. It was known as Gorky until 1990 and it was here that dissident scientist Andrei Sakharov was held under house arrest. Now the city hosts six World Cup matches and is teeming with tourists. That was unthinkable in the Soviet era and even rare now in a city that is seldom visited by outsiders. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Firefighters use a rope to rescue a group of people stranded in a flooded street on July 12, 2018 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province of China. A strong storm has hit many parts of southwest China's Sichuan Province since Monday, causing landslides and floods in the region. (Photo by Wang Hongqiang/Chengdu Economic Daily/VCG)

Actor Mike Lane, standing six feet 10 inches in his stocking feet, makes a perfect monster as he carries actress Nancy Knox down the stairs into Frankenstein's dungeon, February 28, 1958. They have featured parts in the upcoming Boris Karloff movie “Frankenstein 1970”. (Photo by David F. Smith/AP Photo)

Artists called “Le couple en chocolat” take part in the festival “Statues en Marche” in Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium, July 22, 2018. Living statues are a common sight in many city centres, but it is rare to see such a diverse range of this peculiar form of street art for which performers must keep still for painfully long periods of time to create the desired illusion. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)