The US Coast Guard has suspended the search for seven people who remain missing after a small boat overturned Monday in the ocean near San Diego, leaving three people dead and four others injured.
Nine people were initially said to be missing, but the Coast Guard later revised that number to seven after two people were found and detained, The Associated Press reported, citing a US Coast Guard official.
The survivors were found about 15 miles north of downtown San Diego, along Torrey Pines State Beach, where responders interviewed them and determined seven people were unaccounted for.
But after searching the surrounding area for a combined 28 hours by sea and air with a 45-foot-long rescue boat, a helicopter and other craft, the Coast Guard called off its search “pending further developments,” it said in a news release Tuesday.
The four injured were sent to hospitals, authorities said. Their injuries range from mild to severe, Encinitas Deputy Fire Chief Jorge Sanchez told CNN.
Coast Guard officials told the AP they did not know where the 12-foot boat was coming from before it flipped.
“They were not tourists,” Coast Guard Petty Officer Chris Sappey told the AP. “They are believed to be migrants.”
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Sappey later told CNN that, while “vessels coming up in the past have, under similar circumstances, been migrants,” the immigration status of the passengers “is not confirmed at all yet.”
Multiple agencies responded to the incident, including California State Parks, Del Mar Lifeguards, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department and the US Border Patrol.
Hikers and others at Torrey Pines State Beach reported seeing a boat capsize near the shore about 6:30 a.m. local time, Lt. Nick Backouris of the San Diego Sheriff’s Department confirmed to CNN.
“A doctor hiking nearby called in and said, ‘I see people doing CPR on the beach, I’m running that way,’” Backouris told the AP.
An advisory was in effect Monday morning, warning of hazardous conditions for small craft, according to the National Weather Service.
A total of 17 life jackets were found, but it’s unclear exactly how many people were on the capsized panga-style boat, California State Parks told CNN in an email. Pangas are open boats designed for fishing but commonly used by smugglers.
The incident is under investigation, California State Parks said.
CNN has reached out to US Customs and Border Protection and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the migration status of the people involved.
In 2023, eight people were killed when two migrant smuggling boats approached a San Diego beach amid heavy fog. One boat capsized in the surf, marking one of the deadliest human smuggling operations ever in the US.
