FILE PHOTO: Okanagan Lake.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)

VERNON - A man police thought drowned in Okanagan Lake has been found alive.

Mounties say the 38-year-old man fled while they were responding to a complaint on Oct. 14 and disappeared into the lake. An earlier media release stated he was not believed to have resurfaced.

But according to an update Monday evening, Oct. 16, police say he was later located safe and sound. Investigators suspect he managed to swim across Okanagan Lake.

Cpl. Dan Moskaluk says the man was located after a missing person report went out and a member of the public reported seeing him in a neighbouring community. 

"As a precautionary measure he was transported to a medical facility for any required treatment," Moskaluk says. 

The man was not arrested and no charges are anticipated, Moskaluk says. 

The original complaint came in just after 3 a.m. Saturday involving a report of a suspicious man in the 8700 block of Okanagan Landing Road, Cpl. Dan Moskaluk says in an earlier media release.

“According to the complainant, the man tried to enter the home and when confronted by the home owner appeared to be distraught,” Moskaluk says.

Police attended the area and located a man matching the description. Police had a verbal interaction with the man who allegedly became aggressive with police and fled the area on foot heading towards Okanagan Lake.

As police set up containment of the area, a splashing noise was heard coming from the lake, Moskaluk says. Upon investigating the noise, police saw an individual, believed to be the same man, swimming away from shore before going under water. They didn’t think he resurfaced.

Police immediately launched a search of the lake using a kayak on shore but the efforts were unsuccessful. The local search and rescue team was also immediately brought in.

— This story was updated at 9:50 a.m. Oct. 17, 2017 to say the man was not arrested and that no charges are anticipated. 

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