Emergency teams in Canada are searching for a group of French tourists after a snowmobile accident on Quebec’s Lac Saint-Jean left one dead and five missing.
Police say the group of nine were travelling across the shallow lake on Tuesday evening when the ice gave way. Two of the drivers managed to stop their vehicles before reaching the ice, and were able to rescue another member of the group.
The guide, a 42-year-old man, was also rescued on Tuesday evening but later succumbed to his injuries. He died in hospital on Wednesday morning.
Rescue crews – including Canadian military helicopters – searched the area 200 kilometres north of Quebec City on Tuesday evening for the missing five members of the group. Divers arrived at the scene on Wednesday morning to begin their search of the area.
Sgt Hugues Beaulieu of Quebec police told reporters the group, which was travelling between the towns of St-Henri-de-Taillon and Alma, probably departed from the marked snowmobile trails, ending up on the lake.
“They must not have known the area well, because it’s an area known for having critically thin ice because of the current,” he said – adding that the official trails are inspected daily for safety.
Snowmobile tours are an increasingly popular way to explore the Canadian wilderness. The region of Lac Saint-Jean and Saguenay, where the group went missing, has hundreds of kilometres of well-maintained trails through boreal forest and picturesque towns.
But a growing number of snowmobilers are killed every year in avalanches and crashes – many of which are preventable, say police. In 2016, a group of five “very prepared” riders were killed by an avalanche near the mountain town of McBride, British Columbia.
In Ontario and Quebec, fatalities are increasingly common when the vehicles break through thin ice. Over the last 20 years, the Canadian Red Cross says 398 people have died as the result of immersion in frigid water while snowmobiling.