Container full of teddy bears washes up on Montreal-area riverbank

A shipping container filled with teddy bears washed up on a sandbar in the St. Lawrence River, south of Montreal, over the weekend.

The container fell into the water sometime Saturday evening, a spokesperson for the Port of Montreal said. 

Workers realized it was missing Sunday morning and located it across the river, near the shore of Boucherville, Que., a city on Montreal's South Shore.

It had become stuck on the river bottom and lay close to shore. 

But the port spokesperson said it was not a danger to the environment because of its contents. 

"We have a register that tells us what the container contains for every container at the Port of Montreal," the spokesperson, Renée Larouche, said in an interview. 

"No hazardous materials are involved. The container contains teddy bears."

It is unclear, exactly, how the container found its way into the water, Larouche said. 

The container attracted the attention of onlookers, some of whom attempted to access its contents on Sunday. A video taken at the scene showed a man in waders trying to wade across the river, in a moderate current, to get on top of the container.

This week, police were on hand keeping onlookers away from the container.

The port hired a marine salvage company, Urgence Marine Environnement, to remove the container from the water. 

A spokesperson for the company said engineers would need to drain the container of water before a heavy crane could lift it from the riverbed. 

On Tuesday, an employee with the salvage company confirmed the container had been pulled from the water but did not provide further details.