Emergency responders resumed searching Monday morning for a man in his thirties who went missing after slipping off a rock and falling into the water while fishing at Rivière-du-Moulin Park in Chicoutimi on Sunday evening.
Authorities were called to the scene around 7:00 p. m.
on Sunday after a female companion reported the incident.
Emergency crews evacuated visitors from park trails, stationed firefighters with boats, and deployed drones equipped with night vision and thermal sensors before suspending the search at midnight.
Park officials confirmed the immediate response by local emergency services during the initial hours of the operation.
"Firefighters and police officers have taken charge of the situation. A person has indeed fallen into the water.
They are conducting a rescue operation right now," said Myriam Benoît, general director of Rivière-du-Moulin Park.
According to authorities, recent rainfall had left the river rocks slippery, contributing to the fall in a section with swift currents and depths reaching up to 20 feet.
"The firefighters and police officers took charge of the situation. We received a call informing us that a citizen had fallen into the water.
It was a female citizen accompanying the victim who called us. She saw him fall after slipping on rocks.
The individual does not know how to swim and was not wearing a flotation device, based on what she explained to us," said Jean Côté, a firefighter with the Saguenay Fire Safety Service.
Search crews quickly expanded their perimeter downstream from the initial point of entry due to the river's high flow rate.
"It is a river with a strong current, a high flow. The victim, most likely, drifted.
So we expanded our search area. The place where we concentrated our efforts is a kind of cove.
There are two outlets.
We posted firefighters on both sides and searched as best we could in the body of water," added Jean Côté.
As night fell, operations shifted toward shallower shoreline sections before specialized aerial technology was deployed.
"There are deep holes in the area where we were searching that can go up to 15 or 20 feet deep.
With nightfall, we called on the police to fly over the area with a drone equipped with night vision technology and a thermal sensor.
After this flyover, the search is likely to be suspended. If we still have not found anything, it will restart tomorrow morning.
The situation could eventually require calling in SQ divers," added Jean Côté.
Local police confirmed that search crews returned to the shores before 8:00 a. m.
on Monday, with specialized divers requested as backup.
"Responders are looking for a man who fell into the river. Intensive searches were triggered with specialized equipment and drones.
Unfortunately, the man has not yet been found. Plausibly, the man slipped from a rock while he was fishing.
Due to a downpour that had occurred, the rocks were slippery.
He reportedly fell into the water and was quickly submerged," said Tanya Lapointe, communications officer for the Saguenay Police Service.
Police noted that despite calmer surface waters in certain spots, the victim was unable to swim well.
Due to ongoing recovery efforts, a section of the trails at Rivière-du-Moulin Park remains closed to the public on Monday, with Sûreté du Québec divers scheduled to join the operation.
