**UPDATE**  The search for the missing man was suspended shortly after 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, and is expected to resume Wednesday morning.  Officials said they would be in a recovery mode, rather than a rescue mode, indicating the unidentified man is presumed to have drowned.

Emergency crews are searching for a missing man, who is believed to have disappeared in the North Platte River near downtown Casper. Casper Police Department, Natrona County Sheriffs and Casper Fire EMS searched the river and riverbank around the Tate Pumphouse, the Poplar Street bridge and continuing downstream.

Emergency workers were alerted to a problem when an eyewitness put in a call to 911 at around 3:00 PM Tuesday.  Another eyewitness told KTWO radio that a man in his mid-to-late 40s was floating the river on a raft, near the Tate Pump House, and the raft capsized.  The man was then said to have grabbed onto debris and was swept downstream.

Officials at the scene say they found some of the surface debris that the man was reportedly holding on to. Emergency personnel employed surface spotters and rescue swimmers until the search was scaled back at around 6:30 PM. Casper Fire Department spokesperson Craig Kidder said “at this time we don’t know where, or if the gentleman got out of the river.”

Kidder stressed that the man’s whereabouts are unknown, adding that he could be in the water, or could have “self-rescued” and left the scene. If anyone has information, they are urged to call 911 and report it to authorities.

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