The Quebec police force resumed the sweep of the area around Lac Saint-Jean this Friday morning, in an attempt to find the bodies of the five Frenchmen who disappeared on Tuesday evening in a snowmobile accident involving nine people.
While the Canadian guide already died of his injuries on Wednesday, and three Frenchmen were briefly hospitalized for frostbite and a nervous shock, Quebec authorities announced that "six snowmobiles were found" at the bottom of the water, at total, confirming the most pessimistic hypothesis, according to which the five tourists sank in icy waters with their machines.
# Current Event | 4 snowmobiles were found in the area where 2 others were found yesterday, bringing the total to 6 snowmobiles found. 1 other would still be missing.
The 5 French snowmobilers are still missing. Research continues.
All day yesterday, around thirty police officers, including a dozen divers equipped with a small submarine thruster and sonar, scoured the area located east of Lac Saint-Jean, near the town of Saint-Henri-de-Taillon, about 225 km north of Quebec City. Two helicopters and drones were in support.
Father of missing French international biathlete
Yesterday, the Sûreté du Québec published the identities of the disappeared, originating, like the three French survivors, from eastern France. One of them, Gilles Claude, 58, is none other than the father of three French international biathletes.
In the middle of the Biathlon World Championship in Slovenia, Fabien Claude, one of the three sons, won the bronze medal on a stage, and dedicated it to his father: "This podium is for him, I'm sure that 'He is proud of us and I am proud of what I have done today. The goal was not necessarily the result, it was to pay a tribute and do the best possible, "he declared on the microphone of the television channel L'Équipe.
Twenty deaths a year
The French group involved in the snowmobile accident was not a beginner. "These are people we see regularly, once a year for several years," Michel Cellerose, founder of the rental agency Haute-Matawinie, who rented the equipment on Monday, told Radio-Canada public broadcaster. motorcycles to the French group. “We talked together, they are passionate. They are not tourists who knew nothing about snowmobiling, ”he added.
Each year, this practice kills more than twenty people on average in this province alone. For its part, the province of Quebec, which wanted to learn from this unprecedented drama, announced Thursday that it would impose training on guides and tourists who rent these machines.
