The search for a 4-year-old girl who fell into the waters of the Mistassibi River on Friday, in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, was suspended with the arrival of darkness on Saturday evening. They will resume at dawn on Sunday.
The search was paused for security reasons, said Sergeant Hugues Beaulieu, a spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec (SQ).
On Friday, emergency services were called to the place where the child was sliding with his mother, in Dolbeau-Mistassini, when the tragedy occurred around 2:30 p.m., near a hiking trail located near Route 169.
“There were land searches all night with walkers who went to the banks and it continues with two teams of walkers,” said Mr. Beaulieu, who was on site Saturday morning.
SQ divers joined the search Saturday morning, around 9:45 a.m., at the end of a delicate operation from a safety point of view to reach the watercourse.
“It takes a crane to pick up the divers’ boat, transport it over the railing and place it on the river,” explained Sergeant Beaulieu, specifying that the winter context made the operations more complex.
It was at this point that the child was unable to stop his course, to pass under the fence of a guardrail installed along the bank.
“What we understand from the event is that the little girl was with her mother and she was slipping on the banks of the river. Despite the railing with the mesh, she nevertheless passed through and ended up in the water,” explained the SQ spokesperson.
The latter did not want to comment on the chances of finding the little girl alive.
“Currently, we are in a winter temperature of around -7 to -10 degrees. It’s practically a mild temperature at the moment, but the river here freezes very, very little in winter,” said Sergeant Hugues Beaulieu, who knows the area very well.
The search will continue with similar numbers on Sunday.