2 people dead after boat sinks on Annapolis River
Nova Scotia RCMP say a 49-year-old man and a 26-year-old man are dead after their boat sank in the Annapolis River on Monday.
Police say they received a call around 5:30 p.m. that a four-metre vessel went down in the river in Granville Centre with four people aboard.
Investigators say when they arrived, two people — a 46-year-old Granville Centre man and a 27-year-old Weymouth man — had safely made it ashore.
A search was then launched for the remaining two boaters that included three fire services search boats, a Cormorant helicopter and a Hercules aircraft from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre.
A short time later, a 49-year-old Granville Centre man was found by a search boat and was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The body of the fourth man, a 26-year-old from Granville Centre, was found around midnight.
'Not sure what happened'
Earlier Tuesday, Annapolis Royal Volunteer Fire Department Chief Andrew Cranton said it's unclear what caused the boat to sink.
"All we know is that they were out for more or less like a pleasure cruise on the river at that time of the evening and something catastrophic happened with the boat and it immediately sunk," said Cranton in an interview.
"The first two were very hypothermic and information was not at a premium at that time. It was fight mode to survive because of the cold water they had just been in."
The RCMP say they are investigating the incident, and alcohol is believed to have been a factor.
The river begins near the community of Aylesford and flows southwest for roughly 120 kilometres to its mouth near Clementsport, where it empties into the Annapolis Basin.
It runs through the historic small town of Annapolis Royal and is popular among boaters and kayakers.
This article was originally written and published for CBC News.
