A man is transported from the police helicopter to an ambulance after he was evacuated from an isolated area in Riviere-Eternite, Que., Sunday, July 2, 2023. A major landslide caused by heavy rain cut highway 170 between Saguenay, Que., and Saint-Simeon. Two people are missing after they were swept from the road by flood waters. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

SAGUENAY, Que. - Quebec provincial police continued to search for two people on Sunday, a day after they went missing following a landslide triggered by torrential rain in Quebec's Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region.

Police said several people were trying to clear storm-related debris from a road in Rivière-Éternité, Que., about 170 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, when the landslide occurred around 1:30 p.m.

"A landslide and an overflow of the Éternité River swept away the people who were on the road to clear the route of debris. Three people were carried away by the current. A man in his 40s was located and rescued," police spokesman Sgt. Hugues Beaulieu said in an interview.

The man suffered serious injuries and was transported to hospital, where he remains in critical condition.

The two other people, a man and a woman, remain missing.

Beaulieu said there was no new information about the search as of 5 p.m. on Sunday, adding around 30 police officers were on the ground looking for the missing people.

Police divers were also dispatched to the scene, along with two police helicopters.

Those helicopters were being used on Sunday afternoon to evacuate 94 campers who had been trapped in a nearby provincial park campground, Beaulieu said.

Quebec's parks agency, the Société des établissements de plein air du Québec, said multiple landslides along the same road where the two people went missing had cut-off access to a portion of the Fjord-du-Saguenay provincial park. That section has been closed to the public, it said.

Environment Canada estimated around 130 millimetres of rain fell in the area over a two-hour period on Saturday.

Rivière-Éternité has declared a state of emergency and recommended the community's 400 residents evacuate.

A provincial highway running through the town has been closed due to erosion as a result of the storm.

Quebec's Transport Department said major work is required and the road will remain closed throughout the day and possibly longer.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 2, 2023.

— By Jacob Serebrin in Montreal

News from © The Canadian Press, 2023