Othello Tunnels closed after presumed drowning near Hope, B.C.

Access to the Othello Tunnels in Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park near Hope, B.C., has been closed as emergency responders work to recover the body of a man believed to have drowned. 

RCMP say police received a call Saturday evening that a 19-year-old man had fallen into the Coquihalla River near the tunnels.

Officers, search dogs, firefighters and paramedics all descended on the scene, and a bystander who was stranded while looking for the man was rescued by raft.

However, emergency responders say they were unable to find the victim despite the use of a drone to search the area.

Police say they believe the man's body is likely trapped underwater by heavy currents, and rescuers have assessed the site in daylight to formulate recovery procedures.

A co-ordinated recovery operation is in the planning stages, and police say the tunnels have been closed until further notice.

Keith Carlin, a manager with Hope Search and Rescue, said they first received a call on Saturday indicating there were possibly two people in the river.

He said rescuers had managed to get a raft down into a pool where one of the people was stuck, and that he was eventually able to get onto shore.

But the rescue operation for the second person was called off that night as light was fading fast, and it had been three hours since anyone had last seen him.

"This is going to be a recovery [operation]. It's unfortunate," Carlin said.

"But we will come back with the dive team and tackle this problem again and try to find him first because we don't even know where he is."

Carlin said that, due to the significant damage the Othello Tunnels suffered in the 2021 B.C. floods, there were still logs that made the area underneath the trail dangerous.

"He's underneath. It could be a back eddy. He could be wrapped around something. He could be caught in a log," the rescuer said of the man who is presumed to have drowned.