The bodies of six people, including Romanians who tried to smuggle themselves into the United States, were found on Thursday in the St. Lawrence marsh in Quebec, police said on Friday, adding that a child was still missing, Reuters reported.

“The six individuals are believed to be from two families, one of whom is of Romanian descent and members of the other family are suspected of Indian nationals,” Lee-Ann O’Brien, Akwesasne Iroquois Deputy Chief of Police, said in a news release . press conference.

The child of the Romanian family is still considered missing

“Police believe that one child from the Romanian family has not been found and we will continue the search. It is believed that they were all trying to enter the United States illegally from Canada,” O’Brien added.

Six dead – five adults and a child under the age of three.

The child was part of a Romanian family and was probably born in Canada, so he had a Canadian passport, writes News.ro with reference to CTV News.

Police are awaiting the results of an autopsy and toxicology tests in Montreal to determine the cause of death.

The weather was bad that night when the families tried to cross the river

The weather was bad Wednesday night when the families were likely trying to swim across the river.

“It was very windy,” O’Brien said, and it was raining. “It was an unlucky time to be in the water.”

The boat of Casey Oakes, a 30-year-old man who had been missing since Wednesday, was found near six bodies, and police are continuing to search for him, although they have not confirmed that he was connected to the six people found dead.

Trudeau expressed grief over the deaths of the six.

“We need to properly understand what happened, how it happened, and do everything we can to minimize the risks of it happening again,” he told reporters in Moncton, New Brunswick.

US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed last week to ban asylum seekers from entering Canada through unofficial border crossings. Critics say the move could mean refugees and migrants are put at greater risk during the crossing.

But Akwesasne police said the deal, which closed all unofficial border entries, including Roxham Road in Quebec, should not have been a factor in the case because the families were trying to go to the United States, not Canada.

“I can tell you at this point that it has nothing to do with this closing,” O’Brien said.

Last year, four members of an Indian family froze to death in the Canadian province of Manitoba while trying to cross the US territory.

The Akwesasne Reserve stretches along both banks of the St. Lawrence River, in Ontario and Quebec on the Canadian side and New York on the US side. In order to combat the trafficking of people and goods, the local police constantly monitor the river at the expense of Quebec.

The number of people using the Akwesasne area to try to enter the U.S. has increased, with 48 “incidents” reported since the beginning of the year, most of them Indians or Romanians, O’Brien said.