By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — Police and rescue crews searched the Blackstone River Friday night for a man who may have entered its swiftly moving waters while fleeing a disturbance on Clinton Street.

The man was reported to have knocked a woman down at the Tim Horton’s at Clinton and Cumberland streets just before 8:25 p.m. and then fled responding patrol officers in the direction of Kennedy Manor.
Police pursuing the man reported seeing him enter the river behind the elderly housing complex and then disappear into its waters while floating in the direction of the middle wall bridge at Cumberland Street. Although police reported seeing the man go under, police did not know if he resurfaced further downstream and fled the area.
He was described as a white male in his 20s and said to be wearing a blue shirt.
Woonsocket Deputy Fire Chief Thomas Williams set up a command location on Florence Drive near where it has been closed due to the middle school construction project and brought in lights to illuminate the area.
Several other ladder companies took up positions further south of the spot while checking both sides of the river banks.
Fire Department Capt. Tim Walsh and Firefighters Rob Masse and William Crowley checked the river south of the Hamlet Avenue bridge with flashlights and a portable thermal imaging device but did not locate anyone.
The local fire department rescue boat was put into the river at the River’s Edge Recreational Complex and made a search of the area up toward the walk bridge and rescue units from Cumberland and Lincoln responded with their boats as well.
The search continued until 11 p.m. before being called off for the night. Police said the man wanted in the Clinton Street incident had not been located late Friday and that the department was continuing to search for him in the area.