Three dead bodies were found on a boat that washed ashore on the Southern California coast on Monday morning, multiple sources report. The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for nine missing people in connection with the incident. “Search began after receiving a report of an overturned vessel,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.
The San Diego Sheriff’s Office said that deputies were assisting the Coast Guard and providing “life saving measures” near the 200 block of Stratford Court in Del Mar, a beach town to the north of San Diego.
The overturned vessel was reported off the coast of Del Mar at around 6:30 a.m. Monday, and responding crews found the three dead individuals and four survivors in need of medical care at the scene. The vessel was an “old, beat up” panga boat, and possibly a smuggling vessel, Lt. Nick Backouris of the sheriff’s department told the San Diego Union Tribune.
It was unclear where the boat was coming from before it capsized around 35 miles north of the Mexico border. U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Chris Sappey described the panga as an open fishing boat commonly used by smugglers. “They were not tourists,” Sappey told the Associated Press. “They are believed to be migrants.”
Multiple agencies, including a Coast Guard helicopter and the U.S. Border Patrol, are currently searching the area for the missing people. “Potentially nine more individuals are unaccounted for,” Coast Guard spokesperson Adam Stanton told the Union Tribune. “That nine number doesn’t mean they are in the water. They could have made it to shore.”
