Police say a 22-year-old man has died after being pulled from the Grand River in Caledonia, Ont.

“As soon as you get too close to the dam it just makes a big turbulence and it just sucks you in and then there's no way to get out of it, you have to be an extremely good swimmer to come out of it,” said Richard Goutreau.

Emergency crews were called to the Caledonia Dam around 5 p.m. Friday after a man was seen in the water.

Police say bystanders pulled him to shore and administered CPR until paramedics arrived.

The man was pronounced dead in hospital.

He has been identified as Tim Christo of Hamilton.

“It was quick, you know you're trying to save a man's life, a human beings life, so it was pretty chaotic,” said Mike Pettigrew, owner of Caledonia Bait & Tackle.

“It's a beautiful area the Grand River, and it's awful to think that someone drowned,” said Jennifer McDermott, from the Hamilton area.

“You don’t realize how much of a current there is,” said McDermott.

“We all tried to do our best, so it was good to see everybody pull together and try to help this young man best we could, but it's very misfortunate that it happened,” said Pettigrew.

“It was very unfortunate...very unfortunate situation,” said Pettigrew.

Pretty upsetting, it’s usually a pretty quiet place to fish,” said Goutreau.

An autopsy is planned but police say they believe he drowned.

With files from The Canadian Press