Dog handlers, divers, drone and helicopter: a major operation took place on Monday to try to locate two young adults who would have sunk in the rough waters of the Saint-Charles River on Sunday, in Quebec.
• Read also: The search resumes to find two young people swept away in the Saint-Charles River
In the afternoon, there was still no news of the man and the woman in their twenties who would have fallen into the body of water in the Parc des Saules, at the height of the bridge of the cycle path near the Maison O ‘ Neill, around 6 p.m. Sunday.
If we still know little about the circumstances of the event, it is the accidental thesis that is favored by the police.
“We are present, we even have police officers from the support and research unit who are deployed. We are doing everything we can to find them as quickly as possible,” said David Pelletier, spokesperson for the Service de police de la Ville de Québec (SPVQ).
Divers and a helicopter from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) were called in as reinforcements. For a good part of the day, the aircraft flew low over the area, methodically following the circuit of the winding stream.
The search extended over more than ten kilometers on the water and the banks, on foot and in boats, to the mouth of the river with the St. Lawrence River.
The SPVQ canine unit, its nautical squad and a drone also participated in the search. By mid-afternoon, the areas that could be covered on foot had almost all been visited.
Already on Sunday, many efforts by the police and firefighters had been made until late in the evening.
Saddened citizens
The events saddened many citizens and park users, who were watching the river with a much closer eye on Monday, looking for clues that could provide answers to families.
“I have goosebumps. Even if we don’t know them, it still matters to us. I often walk here in the park, then there, I will have a little tendency to look, to open my eyes, ”says Mario Thibault, a resident of Les Saules.
Regulars had noticed that the Saint-Charles was more turbulent than usual on Sunday, probably because of the precipitation of the previous days.
During the incident, its flow was around thirty cubic meters per second (m3/s), according to the ministerial station located a few hundred meters away. It was down on Monday. For comparison, it is typically under 5 m3/s in summer.
Under the bridge where the tragedy took place, the depth of the water is estimated at a dozen feet.
“[Sunday] I would tell you that I would not have wanted to fall into it. I saw the flow and even a professional swimmer there, jumping in the current as well…”, sighs Mr. Thibault.
On Friday, the Société de la rivière Saint-Charles canceled the traditional descent which was to take place on Sunday because of the flow which was announced to be “much too high”. For 25 years, the event has always taken place below 10 m3/s.
“Be careful when you go out on the edge of the river,” the organization wrote on Facebook Monday, following the tragedy. He declined our interview request.
“It’s really sad, especially for the family. I really hope they will find them, ”shares Sophie Careau, a citizen who does not live very far. Sunday evening, she had rushed near the bridges of the green space with her spouse and her two children, to help with the search.
At least 12 drownings this year
If deaths are eventually confirmed, Sunday’s incident on the Saint-Charles River would bring the number of drownings that have occurred in Quebec to 14 since the start of the year, compared to 17 at the same time in 2021.
This event is unfortunately representative of a phenomenon documented in Quebec, since 74% of drownings take place in natural bodies of water and 4 out of 10 in rivers, recalls Raynald Hawkins, director general of the organization.
“When you know the river, you respect it in every sense of the word, because sometimes it seems calm on the surface, but below there are currents and vortexes,” he says, advising stay on marked trails.
“If it hasn’t been set up to get you close to the water, we’re not going there and you should consider the river only for water sports, unless there is a duly set up bathing area” , he adds.
