Police rescue man overboard in Oak Bay, B.C.

Police officers who had gathered to help residents remember war heroes have saved the life of a man near Victoria. (Photo by Jim Sorbie/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

OAK BAY, B.C. — Police officers who had gathered to help residents remember war heroes have saved the life of a man near Victoria.

A statement from Deputy Chief Ray Bernoties with the Oak Bay police says that officers were blocking traffic in preparation for a Remembrance Day ceremony on Saturday morning when they received a call about a man yelling for help in the nearby ocean.

The officers responded and found a man in his 50s clinging to the side of a moored sailboat and yelling for help.

Bernoties says the man could not pull himself on board, so one officer kept an eye on the man from shore while another flagged down a boater and hopped on board.

The boater and the officer pulled the man from the frigid water and took him to a dock, where he received medical attention for exposure.

Bernoties says the man is estimated to have been in the water for about 25 minutes and has recovered.

Following the rescue, the officers returned to their posts for the Remembrance Day ceremony.