At least 8 de ad after migrant boats ov erturn off California coast
Boat salvager Robert Butler, right, and KC Ivers pick up items in front of one of two boats on Blacks Beach in San Diego, Calif., on Sunday. Authorities say multiple people were ki lled when two suspected sm uggling boats ov erturned off the coast in San Diego. (Gregory Bull/The Associated Press)
At least eight people have di ed after two fishing boats capsized off the coast of San Diego, Calif., in an apparent migrant sm uggling ope ration, emergency officials said on Sunday.
San Diego emergency crews began a search and recovery operation late Saturday night, after receiving a 911 call from a Spanish-speaker about fishing boats in distress off the coast of San Diego’s Black’s Beach.
Crews arrived to find two fishing boats caps ized in a 366-metre area, and eight bodies were recovered from the water and the beach, San Diego Fire-Rescue Lifeguard Division Chief James Gartland said.
“This is one of the worst sm uggling tr agedies that I can think of in California, certainly here in the city of San Diego,” Gartland said.
A man leans into a wr ecked boat on a California beach.
Robert Butler picks up a canister from one of the boats sitting on Blacks Beach on Sunday. (Gregory Bull/The Associated Press)
Officials did not know the nationalities of the v ictims but told reporters that they were all adults.
Haz ardous weather conditions likely contributed to the da nger of the maritime sm uggling op eration, and also hindered rescue efforts overnight, officials said. The U.S. Coast Guard and the San Diego Fire-Rescue Lifeguard division were still involved in the recovery operation late Sunday morning.
Eric Lavergne, special ope rations supervisor with the U.S. Border Patrol in San Diego, said this was one of a few hundred migrant smuggling events recorded in his jurisdiction this fiscal year, which is on track with the rate in recent years.
These have included inc idents of migrants swimming, traveling by surfboard or taking panga fishing boats to cross into the U.S., he said.
