A Quebec family is still waiting for the police to find the body of their six-year-old son, who fell into an icy river while playing with his brother and another boy.

The boys were playing on the ice with a dog when Maxime Dion fell in the Riviere Noire around 5 p.m. Monday, near his family home in Upton.

The other boys tried to pull him out, but they were unable to do so.

The dog that the boys were playing with also went into the water. The dog's body was recovered Wednesday.

Since then, there has been no sign of Maxime, other than his boot that police found on Tuesday.

Sgt. Daniel Thibodeau told The Canadian Press that the dog was found less than 200 metres from where the boy and dog went under the water.

CTV Montreal's Tarah Schwartz reported that the divers were gathered in a single part of the river around the midday, where the dog was found.

"Now all the divers are in that area, they are breaking through the ice and it's not very far from where the little boy fell in," Schwartz said.

Police were using an amphibious vehicle to break through the ice on the river, to help in the search for the missing boy.

"Really it is the divers on the ground, it is the ice-breakers, it is the workers that are trying to find the body of this little boy. It's not an easy task for anybody," said Schwartz.

Schwartz said the family is resigned to the fact that police are in the midst of a recovery operation at this point, not a rescue.

With files from CTV Montreal and The Canadian Press