A young man screamed for help and thrashed in the waters of the North Saskatchewan River before being swept away upstream from Edmonton Sunday night.
Devon RCMP said the person was seen struggling in the river near the Voyageur Park boat launch around 7 p.m.
The focus of the search was moved to Edmonton by 9 p.m., RCMP said in an update Monday morning.
The missing person has been identified as 20-year-old Austin Richmond Laporte from Beaumont, Alta.
Laporte is described as five-foot-eight and 190 pounds with brown eyes and hair.
He was last seen wearing black shorts and no shirt.
Janie Busch told Global News she was among a number of people who saw someone in trouble in the river on Sunday night.
She said she was at Prospectors Point in Parkland County — on the opposite side of the river from the Devon boat launch — and playing with her dog on the shore when she saw something was wrong.
“Suddenly, we look over to the left and we hear this, ‘Help! Help! Help!’ … He must have screamed for help five, six times,” she said.
“At one point he started going under a bit and then he would come up and yell for help, and then he just disappeared.
“It’s the horriblest thing to witness. There were people along the beach that were running towards him but there was no way anybody could help him, because he was right in the middle of the river.”
Busch said she was traumatized by what she saw and heard because while the man was in view, he was too far away for her to be able to do anything to help.
“I can still hear it in my head,” she said, referring to the man’s screams for help.
RCMP said the Devon, Parkland and Edmonton fire departments assisted with the search. Multiple drones and boats have been deployed. Parkland RCMP has taken over the investigation.
Devon’s Voyageur Park is about a 20-minute drive southwest of Edmonton.
RCMP are asking people using the river to keep an eye out for anyone who may be in trouble. If someone is found in distress, RCMP said to call 911.
–With files from Phil Heidenreich, Global News
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