Canadian police on the Akwesasne Indian Reservation said Friday in a statement that the number of bodies found in the St. Lawrence River has risen to eight, including two children, and the hypothesis is that they were trying to enter the United States illegally.
The eight deceased were from two different families, one of Romanian and the other of Indian descent, and the two children had Canadian citizenship.
»Our hearts go out to the families of the individuals who died,» Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the media, adding that »it is a heartbreaking situation, considering the young child who was among them.»
For his part, the grand chief of the Mohican Council of Akwesasne, Abram Benedict, explained that they are working to understand »how this tragedy happened and to see how we can work with our police department to prevent it from happening again».
The first body was located Thursday around 5 p.m. local time in a marshy area of the Akwesasne Reservoir, so local police conducted a search of the area with the assistance of the Coast Guard and the Hogansburg Akwesasne Volunteer Fire Department.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
