The search continues Thursday for a young Edmonton man who is missing and presumed drowned after he fell into the water while riding an inner tube on a central Alberta lake.
RCMP say two males were using inner tubes on Sylvan Lake, west of Red Deer, when a wave knocked both into the water Wednesday afternoon.
One of the males was helped out by some people who were close by in a dinghy but the second person could not be found.
A child who was in the dinghy swam to shore for help but police say no children needed to be rescued.
Mounties, aided by the RCMP helicopter and civilian boaters, started a search for the missing man on Wednesday but eventually had to suspend it due to darkness. They resumed the search Thursday morning.
The missing man’s family and friends watched the search from the shore.
They identified him as Palwinder Singh, 21, of Edmonton.
Maninder Kaloti, a family friend, said the family is in shock.
“Nobody could believe that happened. Even this morning when we came in, we were still having a hope he would come out from somewhere and we could find him — maybe in rough shape but alive.”
Kaloti says now they are waiting for crews to find a body.
Search and rescue crews were focusing on an area just off the shore of Sylvan Lake Park, blaring a siren at anyone motoring or paddling close.