SAINT-ANICET, Que. – Two days of extensive searching of the St. Lawrence River and the shoreline have failed to find a man missing and presumed drowned.
Two men in a boat were thrown into the river after their boat overturned in the blustery wind on the afternoon of Dec. 24 near the Salmon River (Riviere aux Saumons).
One man was able to swim to shore by the other didn’t make it out of the water, Quebec police said.
Authorities were notified around 4:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve through it’s believed the accident happened earlier in the afternoon.
A helicopter from the Canadian Coast Guard and boats from Surete du Quebec searched most of the afternoon and evening before the search was called off around 9 p.m.
The night search drew the attention of people in South Glengarry around Hamilton Island.
“The next day (Christmas Day) we had divers that were on the scene and other searches were made and the Coast Guard was on scene again, and the helicopter,” SQ spokeswoman Joyce Kemp told Cornwall Newswatch.
“We also have an emergency team of police officers … to participate in the search with a boat also. And there were searches that were done along the riverside by foot,” Kemp said.
The missing man has been identified as a 46-year-old from Saint-Anicet, Que.
“The information that we have is that the boat possibly flipped over because there were strong winds on the day that it happened,” Kemp told CNW.
As of today (Dec. 30), the searches have been suspended due to the weather though Kemp didn’t rule out possible searches in the future.
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