Two swimming incidents Canada Day at Lake Diefenbaker: RCMP

A 36-year-old man from Central Butte is missing and presumed drowned after he jumped into Lake Diefenbaker to rescue some children on Canada Day.

According to the RCMP, officers from the Swift Current, Morse and Outlook detachments responded Thursday at about 11 a.m., to a call of a person who had gone overboard from a boat near the Palliser Regional Park shoreline.

Police were told the man jumped into the lake to help some kids who were in distress while swimming. The children were pulled into the boat, but the man didn’t resurface.

Searches were conducted on the shoreline on both sides of the lake by the Mounties, Ministry of Environment conservation officers, members of the Lucky Lake Fire Services and Central Butte EMS as well as people in civilian boats. The searchers didn’t locate the man.

The RCMP’s Underwater Recovery Team was to continue the search Friday.

Then, at about 3 p.m., the Outlook RCMP was called about a 22-year-old woman who had had problems while swimming in Lake Diefenbaker at Douglas Provincial Park.

When police arrived, the woman was being treated by first responders before being taken by STARS to hospital in Regina. The Mounties didn’t have any word on her condition.