It’s believed that five missing teenagers have been found on a lake in northern Saskatchewan and are being returned home this afternoon, the RCMP says.
A search aircraft spotted five people on the shore of Malcolm Island at 12:50 p.m. CST.
Police believe they’re the four boys and one girl missing since last Tuesday, but that has not been confirmed. There is virtually no cellphone coverage on much of Reindeer Lake, where the rescuers are this hour.
Family members were celebrating on social media, however.
A boat with a community search team was on the way to Malcolm Island, which will take one to two hours to reach.
Malcolm Island is approximately 10 kilometres south of the northern Saskatchewan community of Kinoosao.
Since Thursday, a major search involving planes and boats and people on foot has been underway around Reindeer Lake, about 500 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.
Southend, Sask., is about 500 km northeast of Saskatoon, on the southern tip of Reindeer Lake. (Google Maps/CBC)
Police received a report that the four boys and a girl, ages 13 to 17, did not return after leaving in a boat last Tuesday.
It’s not clear what they were planning, although one family member says they had gone hunting.
RCMP said on Saturday that a search plane spotted two boats on Reindeer Lake north of Southend, but the boats were gone by the time a ground crew arrived at the site on Sunday.
The appearance of the boats happened in the same area where Arctic Lodges is located, more than 120 kilometres north of Southend.
Police and a spokesman for the lodge said that a cabin was damaged, with doors kicked in, but that some items were also taken that could have helped the teens survive.
“It looked like there had been people in the lodge, around the lodge, and some basic items were taken including some survival items, food and fuel and things like that,” Sgt. Josh Hallett said.
The search has been hampered by poor weather, with temperatures well below zero and winds gusting to 40 km/h.
