Spanish man held after rescue from Niagara Falls

By Jennifer Kwan

TORONTO (Reuters) - A man is in custody on an immigration-related charge after being rescued from Niagara Falls near the U.S. border over the weekend, claiming to have fallen asleep on an inflatable mattress, authorities said on Monday.

"Canada Border Services Agency is alleging that he is inadmissible to Canada," said Charles Hawkins, spokesman for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, the country's largest independent administrative tribunal.

Hawkins said the 42-year-old man, a Spanish citizen, was detained as he was considered "a flight risk."

He was rescued from a chunk of ice 1.5 kilometres upstream from Niagara Falls near the U.S. border.

Security personnel at an Ontario Power Generation station had heard the man screaming for help around 4:30 a.m. Saturday close to the OPG's water-tunnel intake near Chippawa, Ont.

"He claimed he was going to lie down on the mattress to relax and he fell asleep, and the next thing he knew he was on the river," said Hawkins, recounting information from the man's detention hearing on Monday morning.

The man might have been trying to get to the United States when the ice chunk he was on broke loose, media reports said.

That's when rescuers plucked him from the ice floe, said Inspector John Audibert of the Niagara Parks Police.