BC

Update 6:28 p.m.: RCMP divers have recovered the body of a semi-truck driver from the waters of Shuswap Lake in south-central B.C.

Cpl. Mark Skotnicki says the driver is believed to have drowned after his westbound tractor trailer left the Trans-Canada Highway in the middle of the night and plunged into the water.

The semi has Alberta licence plates, but the identity of the driver and his hometown have not been determined.

Meantime, the Environment Ministry is dealing with fuel that's leaking from the vehicle.

Photo: RCMP

Kamloops RCMP called in a dive team to search for the driver of a tractor-trailer that went off the TransCanada Highway east of Chase, B.C. sometime Tuesday morning, or Monday night. (RCMP)

Update: Highway 1 will be closed in both directions      14 kilometres East of Chase because of vehicle recovery from 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.

A police dive team is searching part of Shuswap Lake east of Chase, BC, after a tractor-trailer failed to make a turn and went off the side of Highway 1 into the water sometime possibly Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Kamloops RCMP said there is little chance of finding the driver alive, and the BC Coroners Service has been notified of the incident.

The semi truck was found Tuesday morning completely submerged, just off a curvy portion of the Trans Canada directly to the east of Little River Boatworld. The driver's body has yet to be located.

By the time police arrived, the trailer had floated about a kilometre away, toward Chase.

Cpl. Mark Skotnicki said no one knows yet what happened on the stretch of highway.

"This was an un-witnessed event, to our knowledge at this time."

"[We] just got a call from a driver who spotted what looked like debris in the lake."

Police are now looking over the accident scene for clues as to why the truck left the highway, but say the driver most likely failed to make it around an S-curve.

-- With files from the CBC's Samantha Garvey and Emily Elias