(Montreal) The search continues and finds a 4-year-old girl who fell into the waters of the Mistassibi River in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean on Friday.
Published at 10:06 am. Updated at 11:10 a.m
When the tragedy occurred around 2:30 p.m. near a nearby trail on Route 169, emergency services were called to the scene where the child slipped with his mother in Dolbeau-Mistassini.
“There have been land searches all night with hikers going to the banks, and it continues with two teams of hikers,” said Sergeant Hugues Beaulieu, a spokesman for the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), who was there Saturday morning.
Divers from the Sûreté du Québec took part in the search around 9:45 a.m. Saturday morning, at the end of a delicate operation for safety reasons to reach the waterway.
“You need a crane to pick up the divers' boat, transport it over the railing and set it down on the river,” explained Sergeant Beaulieu, specifying that the winter conditions made the operations more complex.
At this point, the child was unable to stop his course and pass under the fence of a guardrail installed on the bank.
“From the incident, we understand that the little girl was with her mother and slipped near the river. Despite the wire mesh railing, she still got through and ended up in the water,” said the SQ spokesman.
He did not want to comment on the chances of finding the little girl alive.
“We currently have a winter temperature of around -7 to -10 degrees. At the moment the temperatures are practically mild, but in winter the river here freezes very, very little,” said Sergeant Hugues Beaulieu, who knows the area very well.
Research must continue as long as necessary.