Saudi man goes missing in Niagara Falls

Dubai - Search is under way for a Saudi scholar who has gone missing in the Niagara Falls in New York since Saturday, his relatives have said.

Qassim Bin Yehya Adawi was on a picnic with his family next to the famed falls on Saturday when he left them inside their car and went to take some photos, but has never been seen again. He is married with three children.

“When his wife inquired after him, eyewitnesses told her they had seen a person falling into water branching off the Falls,” his brother told Saudi-owned television Al Arabiya.

The wife reported the incident to the US security agencies that have since been searching for Adawi.

“The latest news from the police is that a rocky spot below the falls had been combed, but he was not found there,” Majed Adawi, a relative of the scholar, said. “Search is ongoing in the water of the falls,” he told Saudi news portal Sabq.

Saudi Foreign Ministry is in contact with the New York authorities over the incident.

The Saudi consulate in New York said it had contacted the police. “The investigator in charge said preliminary investigations indicate that an unknown person had reportedly slipped into the falls,” the mission said. “Search is going on to find and identify him,” it added.

Adawi has been in the US to study for a doctoral degree in aviation technology and administration, Al Arabiya reported.