Man taken to hospital after going underwater at Chocolate Lake

A man in his 20s was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries Wednesday afternoon after he was spotted going underwater at Chocolate Lake in Halifax.

Paramedics, firefighters and policewere called to the scene at 3:10 p.m. AT.

Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency said CPR was administered to the man and that he was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries for further care.

Martha Paynter was at Chocolate Lake with a bubble friend and their children at the time.

"I was in the water with my daughter and it became apparent that there was a search starting ...I am a nurse, so I got my child to go back with my friend and I stayed with the searching people in case I was needed to perform CPR," Paynter said.

Lifeguards-in-training assist

Lifeguards don't begin daily supervision in the area until July, butPaynter said teens training to be lifeguards were there and helped get the man out of the water.

"The teacher mobilized his students to form a line and also asked every strong swimmer to come and join them," she said.

Paynter said the man had been under the water for "quite some time," about 12 minutes or so.She said by the time they got him to shore, paramedics were there and started CPR immediately.

"It was really remarkable how so many people joined together to create an ad hoc rescue effort, remarkable that these very young people who were training to be lifeguards had this happen and were so key to the rescue effort," she said.