Dive team recovers body of Calgary man from Elbow Falls

Body recovered after fatal slip at Elbow Falls A Calgary man’s body was recovered by divers after he fell into Elbow Falls on the weekend while trying to assist a family member. Brad MacLeod has more on the tragedy…

The body of a 33-year-old Calgary man has been recovered from Elbow Falls and police say he lost his footing while trying to save one of his family members from falling into the water below.

Abdul Quadir Mohammed was visiting the area, southwest of Bragg Creek, with his family on Saturday.

Police say the family was taking pictures of the scenic site and that they were on the other side of a barrier when one of them slipped.

“My understanding is that they were taking a photograph and somebody had lost their footing. The deceased male at that time was trying to assist and he lost his footing and fell over,” said RCMP Corporal Troy Savinkoff. “When they were taking the photographs they were on the other side of the barrier that is meant to prevent people from getting too close to the edge.”

The family was unable to rescue Mohammed and police were called to the scene at about 8:00 p.m.

“The day of, it was in the evening and although rescuers could see him it was in a very dangerous area. At the end of the day he was located behind the waterfall in about 12 feet of water and there was a lot of other issues that didn’t make it safe for the rescuers to go in there to retrieve him and then with the loss of light they couldn’t make those attempts that evening so then they reexamined it in the morning,” said Savinkoff.

The dive team from the Calgary Fire Department was called in to help out on Sunday and recovered the body at about 5:00 p.m.

“Unfortunately in the morning they no longer could see him and so they had to make other attempts to visually identify him before they put divers in, which they did using some instruments that they had and then they were able to recover him,” said Savinkoff.

Police say there have been fatalities at the falls in the past and that the barriers are in place to keep people safe.

“People want to come out and enjoy the sun and beautiful locations but when places have a history to be dangerous, there’s a reason why those barricades are there because there’s been tragedies in the past and yes a lot of times you can go there seemingly safely but there’s a reason why those issues are there, it’s not safe,” said Savinkoff.

Another person fell in trying to see what happened and was also taken to hospital in serious condition.

Mohammed’s body has been transported to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Calgary.