Alberta man presumed drowned near Faro, Yukon

Yukon RCMP say they areinvestigating a presumed drowning that happened on a lake outside Faro on Monday evening.

In a news release, police saidthree men had been out snowmobiling on Drury Lake,about 60 kilometres west of Faro, just after nightfall on Jan. 28 when two of the men and their snowmobiles fell through the ice. They say one man was able to make it out, and to safety. The other man was seen going under water and did not resurface.

Police say the two menwent to a residence in Drury Creek and called for help. Due to the remote location of the incident, darknessand unstable ice conditions, Yukon RCMP's search and rescue co-ordinator decided the search would begin the next morning.

On Tuesday morning, RCMP,Yukon Search and Rescue and ice rescue technicians from the Whitehorse Fire Department carried out a search of the area,howeverthey did not locate the missing man.

The RCMP haverequested the assistance and technical expertise of the B.C.RCMP Underwater Recovery Team in order to conduct further searches and advance the investigation. Recovery operations are expected to take place later this week.

Police say the identity of the missing man will not be released at this time, but they confirm he is a 36-year-old resident of Alberta.

They are reminding the publicto use extreme caution when travelling on or near Yukon waterways. They say not all are frozen.