The body of a 19-year-old male was recovered in Sylvan Lake Thursday evening at 6:35 p.m.
The body was located in close proximity to the location identified as the last known point of sight of Palwinder Singh of Edmonton, although RCMP wouldn't confirm the identity of the body late Thursday evening.
Originally, the missing man was described as in his twenties, but police said he was actually 19.
RCMP say two men on inner tubes were knocked into the water by a wave at approximately 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. One man was helped out of the water by people on a nearby dinghy, but they could not find the second man.
According to local police, a child inside the dinghy swam to shore for help shortly after the incident to alert emergency crews. No children were in need of rescuing.
Maninder Kaloti, a family friend, says Singh moved to Canada in 2018.
"He was young, energetic, hardworking," said Kaloti. "Just came to Canada to make his future. He was a student and pretty hopeful for his future."
"It was their first leisure activity of the summer because they were trying to find some work."
Kaloti confirms Singh was not a capable swimmer and had not been wearing a life jacket at the time of incident.
"The initial information we have that some wave came in and flipped their floatie and he couldn't put his feet on and couldn't survive. They lost him. The other friend who was on the other floatie, he tried to catch him but he lost his hand. They couldn't find where he went after that."
"Everybody's in a state of shock right now. It's hard to believe that we lost him. His parents, who are back home in India, are in deep shock."
Sylvan Lake is located about 160 kilometres north of Calgary. The freshwater lake is approximately 15 kilometres long and has a maximum depth of 18 metres.
