The Montreal police nautical patrol and a drone were deployed Friday morning to resume the search for a man who fell through the ice on Rivière des Prairies by the city’s West Island on Thursday afternoon.
The search began following a 911 call at 2:35 p.m. on Thursday reporting two people in distress in the water near the Jacques-Bizard Bridge in the Ste-Geneviève district of the city. One of the men was rescued and taken to hospital and is considered out of danger, while the other remains missing.
A police boat with four officers onboard was combing the shoreline at the edge of the ice where the men fell in on Friday morning. Footprints were visible in the snow on the ice.
In addition to searching the shore and the river at the site of the incident, police are also searching downstream, while a drone is conducting an aerial search. Police considered using divers, but a risk assessment found it wouldn’t be safe for them in the water, SPVM spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said Friday afternoon.
“The current is quite strong, and there are ice floes that could break off and carry off the divers if they go in with the current,” he said. “All of that makes it a bit too dangerous for them.”
There are two boats on the water in addition to officers on foot along the banks.
“We also have officers much farther east carrying out searches with equipment … looking in case we spot a piece of clothing or something that might give us some indication.”
Brabant said the search efforts will continue until dark.
A woman who lives in a building beside the site of the incident, who preferred to remain anonymous, said she saw a person being pulled out of the water on Thursday.
“We didn’t really know what was going on before we saw the ambulance with the stretcher,” she said. “And then they brought a man out and put him in the ambulance. I don’t know if he was seriously hurt or not, but they sure took a long time to leave. The paramedics (were) walking around. He was on a stretcher all covered up in the back. And then I guess there is someone else missing, too.”
The man who is still missing is a student of the nearby CEGEP Gérald-Godin.
“We are monitoring the situation closely with the authorities,” the school said in a statement on its website. “Measures are being deployed to support our student and staff communities. Our hearts go out to the affected families.”
Montreal police look for a man who fell through the ice of the Rivière des Prairies on Friday, March 27, 2026. Allen McInnis /Montreal Gazette
Nearby Salle Pauline-Julien cancelled a benefit show planned for Friday evening because of the incident.
The neighbour also said a person fell through the ice a week earlier while trying to rescue a dog who had fallen in.
“He went out to get the dog,” she said. “He fell in and he hurt his knee climbing out on the ice, but he got out.”
Another neighbour who has lived by the site of the incident for 17 years, Ernest Wright, said he came home Thursday as the search was underway.
“Just coming up the street, I saw one of the fire trucks was here and the small unit with the boat trailer,” he said.
Wright said he doesn’t typically see people venturing far onto the ice in the area, though they sometimes do on the part closest to the shore.
“Even I myself will walk the dog on this part right here,” said Wright, gesturing to the shore. “Not when (the water is) this close, but I mean, usually it’s much more frozen over than it is (now).”
The current seemed to be moving quickly Friday. Wright described it as “pretty fast.”
“It’s terrible, really,” he said of the missing man.
Police said there seems to be no criminal element involved in Thursday’s incident.