It was a tragic end to a search for person believed to be in the South Saskatchewan River.

At 5:42 p.m. on Wednesday a firefighter-diver with the Saskatoon Fire Department, performing a hand search of the river’s bottom, located the body of a man.

It was a short distance from where witnesses says they saw someone in the river. The initial call of a person in distress came in around 1:30 Wednesday afternoon in the area of the Victoria Boathouse.

The body was recovered and removed from the river and the scene was turned over to the Saskatoon Police Service.