CANADIAN searchers yesterday found the body of one of five French snowmobilers whose machines fell through the ice of a frozen lake, said police.

A spokesman acknowledged that the chances of finding the group alive have dimmed, but police are “keeping up hope” of recovering their bodies.

The search for the snowmobilers includes divers, sonar operators and police backed by helicopters in an area about 225km north of Quebec City, and is expected to resume at daybreak.

Quebec provincial police spokesman Hugues Beaulieu said the body discovered yesterday “was found more than 2km from the initial search area in the Grande Decharge River” at the mouth of Lake Saint-Jean, where the accident happened.

“At the moment, we can’t identify the body,” French Consul General in Quebec Laurent Barbot told a press briefing.

“The process is under way, and the families have, of course, been informed.”

The group included eight French tourists who were snowmobiling on Tuesday evening in an area that is off-limits to snowmobiles because the ice is thinner there.

Three snowmobilers survived with minor injuries. They returned to France on Thursday evening, according to the consulate.

Their 42-year-old Canadian guide died in hospital on Wednesday after trying to rescue members of the group.

Police have recovered six snowmobiles at the bottom of the lake near where the accident occurred, and provincial authorities have pledged to tighten safety measures on the use of the machines.

Investigators do not know why the group left the approved paths to venture “off-piste” at nightfall, but some experts believe they may have been trying to take a shortcut to their destination. – AFP, January 25, 2020.