Crews have recovered the body of a young man who drowned in the waters of Lynn Canyon Park Friday afternoon.

Firefighters and RCMP officers said they received reports of a possible drowning in the popular District of North Vancouver tourist attraction at around 5 p.m.

Initially, the response was a rescue mission, but about an hour after they arrived, authorities said they did not have high hopes for finding the man alive.

Later in the evening, they located the man’s body, but by that time it was too dark to recover it safely.

“We know where he is,” North Vancouver Rescue Sgt. Doug Trousdell told CTV News Friday night. “But he's in a very deep pool and our rescuers haven't been able to get to him.”

The man’s body was eventually recovered shortly after noon on Saturday.

 

 

The death happened just downstream from a suspension bridge -- which authorities closed to traffic shortly after the initial call came in, and which remained closed until Saturday afternoon.

Jesse Mummery was in the park when the man was first spotted in the water.

“I heard people yelling down from the bridge, 'Is he OK? Is he OK?’” Mummery told CTV News. “There happened to be a park ranger on the bridge with us at the time and she threw down some kind of yellow marker and got on her radio and told us to get out of here real quick."

A separate rescue effort was launched for the young man’s three friends -- all men in their early 20s -- who got trapped on a rock. They were successfully retrieved, all distraught at the loss of their friend.