Ontario Provincial Police have found the bodies of two people reported missing after a minivan carrying four college students plunged through the ice on a lake southeast of Algonquin Park.

Students pray and mourn together at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy, a close-knit community of 60 full-time students, in Barry's Bay.
(CBC)

The bodies were recovered by police divers around 11 a.m. ET Monday.

Police did not identify the students who died, but said they were a male and female, and not from the immediate area.

The vehicle was travelling south on Kamaniskeg Lake, about 165 kilometres west of Ottawa, on Saturday afternoon when the ice broke beneath it, said a news release from the OPP's Bancroft detachment.

Two people managed to make it to shore and spent the night in a nearby cottage, but the other two had been unaccounted for, police said.

"The entire community is shocked and saddened," said David Warner, president of the college.
(CBC)

All four people in the vehicle were students from Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy, confirmed David Warner, president of the small, private, Roman Catholic liberal arts college in Barry's Bay, at the north end of Kamaniskeg Lake.

"The entire community is shocked and saddened," Warner told CBC News Monday.

In a statement issued early Monday afternoon, the school said the students were heading toward Combermere on a shopping trip in a minivan that one of them owned. At the time, the school was on a three-day study break that had been scheduled to continue through Monday.

Rebecca Mombourquette, who studies at the college, said the incident has been very traumatic for the close-knit community of 60 full-time students and 22 part-time students.

"We were all in a lot of shock and still are. It just seems unreal," said Mombourquette. "I lived with the girl and she's just a wonderful person. They're definitely going to be missed. They were both a big part of our community and definitely contributed in many ways and we love them very much."

Warner said Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy has been focusing on prayer and community support since learning about the incident on Sunday morning. The college president added that he is impressed by the faith and maturity of his students, who are mostly between the age of 18 and 20.

Several priests, deacons and trained psychologists have been offering consolation and grief counselling at the college, and numerous prayer services, masses, all-night vigils and prayer services have been and will continue to be held, the college news release said.

Academy focuses on prayer, community support

Fishing huts sit on frozen Kamaniskeg Lake, which stretches from Barry's Bay south to Combermere.
(CBC)

It is believed the students left Barry's Bay, close to the college, and followed a road that heads onto the lake to provide access to the ice fishing huts there. Taking the lake would shave five kilometres off the 20-kilometre journey to Combermere by road.

However, locals said they would not use the road to go all the way.

Craig Kelly, community development officer with the township of Madawaska Valley, said even snowmobilers are cautious on Kamaniskeg Lake due to frequent slushy patches caused by the Madawaksa River flowing through.

"It's generally frozen, but with the current, it's very susceptible to thin ice," Kelly said of the lake, which he estimated is about 16 kilometres from north to south, and about 1.5 to 2.5 kilometres across from east to west.