Bodies of two missing canoeists recovered after boat went over Minnesota waterfall

The bodies of two missing canoeists who went missing two weeks ago when their canoes were swept over a waterfall in Minnesota have been found.

Four people in two canoes went over Curtain Falls waterfall in the Boundary Waters wilderness last month, falling 30ft into the waters of Iron Lake below. The waterfall is located on the border between the US and Canada.

Two people were initially rescued downstream from a small island and were airlifted by a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources helicopter.

Search crews located the body of Reis Melvin Grams, 40, on Monday, while the body of 41-year-old Jesse Haugen of Cambridge, Minnesota was discovered on Friday.

The two people rescued were earlier identified as Kyle Thomas Sellers, 47, and 43-year-old Erik Michael Grams, brother of Reis Melvin Grams.

Mr Sellers was injured from the fall and was flown to hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries. A fifth person in the group, Jared Jay Lohse, 33, was on the shore at the time of the incident.

Bad weather had hampered the initial search Nate Skelton, division commander with the St Louis County sheriff’s office, told the Star Tribune.

The missing men were part of a group who were familiar with the area.

The men were fishing above the falls when “something happened; one of them got in distress, the other one tried to give some assistance, and they both ended up going over the falls,” Mr Skelton told the outlet.