Search continues for missing boy

The search for a boy who fell into a Jordan River surplus canal Saturday evening resumed Sunday morning after rescue efforts were suspended in the early morning hours.

Officials are using underwater sonar equipment to scan the bottom of the canal in an operation now being considered a recovery.

Seven-year-old Trejon Brown was last seen about 6:30 p.m. Saturday near Redwood Road and California Avenue falling into the fast-moving channel of water after he slipped while walking on a pipe with friends.

Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Corey Latham said Sunday that rescuers are faced with an extreme set of conditions in the ongoing search for the boy.

"There's a tremendous amount of water flowing through this channel…and our divers were searching with their hands in cold water with zero visibility," Latham said.

Latham said a team from the Utah Department of Public Safety, working in conjunction with Salt Lake County Search and Rescue personnel and the Salt Lake City Fire Department, resumed the search about 8:30 a.m. Sunday using an underwater sonar device that provides a picture of the bottom of the waterway, which is 18-20 feet deep in some places.

"They get a very clear picture of what's on the bottom…but the fast moving current does slow down the process," Latham said.

Divers were in the water as searchers combed the banks of the canal until about 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning, Latham said. Later in the morning, the sonar team and another boat with rescuers using probing poles resumed the search, starting at the point where the boy was last seen.

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