Quebec provincial police are searching for a man who went missing after taking off on a snowmobile on the Lake of Two Mountains on Saturday.
Authorities say the search for the missing man, Pierre Brossard, 54, is focused on the lake and its surroundings, located west of Montreal.
Sûreté du Québec (SQ) police began searching for the man on Saturday until dark and continued the search as of Sunday morning.
Just before 12 p.m. on Sunday a SQ helicopter spotted a snowmobile half submerged in the Ottawa river near Pointe-aux-Anglais in Oka.
Police could not confirm if the snowmobile they found was the one Brossard was traveling on.
Brossard was last seen at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, according to police.
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SQ spokesperson Sergeant Claude Denis said a helicopter, divers and ground searchers are being deployed to find the missing man.
Officers say Brossard took off on snowmobile from Rigaud and was crossing the lake to get to Île Bizard — something he did often, according to his stepson Francis Brunet.
“It is extremely dangerous to travel by snowmobile on lakes at this time of year,” Denis say.
Temperatures in southern Quebec have been close to freezing in recent days and swathes of water can be seen among the ice on the Lake of Two Mountains.
The SQ say there was no reports of an injured snowmobiler at any local hospital as of Sunday.
Brunet told Global News police found a boot and a mitten belonging to Brossard in the water on Sunday afternoon.
–with files from the Canadian Press