The search resumed Monday for Anoshan Nagaswara, 20, who slipped and tumbled into the Rivière des Prairies in Pierrefonds in Montreal's West Island on Sunday evening.

Montreal firefighters and the Canadian Coast Guard were back on the river looking for him today. Police divers are also involved in the search.

Some of the man's family gathered at a small park on Riviera Street near the water Monday morning, awaiting news about the search. According to one family member, the man's father had been there all Sunday night and into Monday morning.

Family members gathered Monday morning near the spot where Anoshan Nagaswara fell into the Rivière des Prairies. (Derek Marinos/CBC)

Relatives say police told them Nagaswara had been out on a date with a woman, and he fell into the water while posing for a photo. The woman he was with ran along the riverbank, trying to follow him.

Witnesses say he was last seen about 50 metres from the point where he fell in.

Family members told CBC News that Nagaswara does not know how to swim.

Witnesses saw the man fall into the water near Riviera around 6 p.m. The man was carried east by the strong current, Montreal police Const. Raphael Bergeron said.

Montreal police, Laval and Montreal firefighters and the coast guard were deployed to look for him, but the search was suspended Sunday once darkness fell.

The young man is to turn 21 later this month, and relatives said his family had been poised to surprise him with a car for his birthday.

Resident says close calls happen often

Pierrefonds resident Deborah Bradley has lived near the park for 11 years and says she's seen numerous close calls, often involving children.

Pierrefonds resident Deborah Bradley lives overlooking the park where the accident took place Sunday. (Antoni Nerestant/CBC)

She said that on Sunday, just a few hours before Nagaswara fell into the river, a group of young girls were playing with balls and Hula hoops near the river with their parents sitting under a tree in the distance.

"I said to my husband, it just takes that one little girl to chase after the ball, and they're going over," Bradley told CBC News.

She said bushes and trees obstruct people's view of the quickly moving river so they don't realize the danger they are in when they play near it.

"It needs a fence. Something has to be put up," she said.