A man was rescued alive from underneath the Canadian side of Niagara Falls on Monday.

Niagara Parks Police say Monday afternoon that witnesses report the man jumped into the water over a retaining wall, suffering life-threatening injuries.

The incident happened man had managed to get close to shore in waist deep water on his own, before being met by a police officer.

"The male patient had abrasions to body, he had a gash to his head and his shoulder," says Platoon Chief Dan Orescanin.

The man was airlifted to Hamilton General Hospital just before 1 p.m. by ORNGE air ambulance. An ORNGE official says the man is believed to be in his early 40s.

Since 1901, when Annie Edison Taylor was the first person known to go over the falls and live, 17 others have replicated the feat, most by using safety devices like Taylor's oak barrel or the foamed-lined pickle barrel and inner tube contraption Steve Trotter used to go over in 1985.

The last person to go over the Falls unaided and survive was a 30-year-old Canadian man in March 2009.

In October 2003, Kirk Jones, an out-of-work auto parts salesman survived his plunge over the falls and, in 1960, 7-year-old Roger Woodward was swept over the falls wearing a life jacket and survived.

(With files from the Associated Press)