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Four people died and four others were hospitalized after a wooden boat carrying suspected migrants overturned in turbulent waters off the San Diego coast late Friday night, authorities said.
The US Coast Guard said on Saturday that it was still searching for additional people who may have been aboard the panga-style vessel when it capsized in the waters off the coast of Imperial Beach Drive around 11:40 p.m. local time on Friday, according to an official press release.
The tragedy took place as a powerful storm system battered Southern California with heavy rain and dangerous surf conditions over the weekend, prompting flash flood and mudslide warnings across the region.
Imperial Beach Border Patrol agents had been monitoring the small vessel as it crossed out of Mexican waters before receiving reports that it had overturned, throwing passengers into the Pacific, Imperial Beach Fire Chief John French told NBC San Diego.
Within minutes of the capsizing, emergency responders found six people on the beach just before midnight, the Coast Guard said.
One person was pronounced dead at the scene, while another was pulled from beneath the overturned boat and rescued.
Roughly two hours later, at 1:45 a.m. local time, a Good Samaritan reported seeing someone in the water near Imperial Beach Pier.
A Coast Guard boat crew from Station San Diego responded and recovered three people from the ocean. All three were pronounced dead after being transferred to Ballast Point, according to the Coast Guard’s official timeline.
One body was discovered floating near homes on Seacoast Drive and Encanto Avenue, NBC San Diego reported.
Emergency medical services transported four survivors to a nearby hospital for treatment, according to multiple outlets.
One person was taken into custody by Imperial Beach Border Patrol and later transferred to a Department of Homeland Security agency, the Coast Guard said.
Several of those aboard claimed Mexican nationality, while others remained unidentified Saturday, authorities said.
Reuters reported that Homeland Security Investigations has taken over the investigation of the incident.
“Our crews and partner agencies responded immediately, but this case demonstrates the severe risks posed to aliens attempting to enter the United States by sea in unstable vessels,” Coast Guard Capt. Robert Tucker, commander of the San Diego sector, said.
The vessel was a panga — a small, open fishing boat often used by smugglers to transport migrants from Mexico into California by sea, usually under cover of darkness and in perilous conditions, the Associated Press reported.
Migrants are increasingly relying on these risky sea routes as an alternative to heavily fortified land borders along California’s coast, according to the AP.
Pangas typically depart Mexico late at night and sometimes travel hundreds of miles north through open ocean.
In May, at least three people died when a panga flipped approximately 35 miles north of the US-Mexico border, the AP reported.
In 2023, eight people were killed when two migrant smuggling boats approached a San Diego beach in heavy fog and one capsized in the surf — one of the deadliest maritime smuggling incidents in US coastal waters.
A year prior, a federal judge sentenced a San Diego man to 18 years in prison after his overloaded boat carrying 32 migrants broke apart in heavy surf, leaving three dead and more than two dozen injured.
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