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The US Coast Guard in San Diego has ended its search for missing migrants after two smuggling boats capsized off California’s coast over the weekend, leaving eight people dead in what one official called “one of the worst maritime smuggling tragedies” the city has seen.
The two boats overturned around 11:30 p.m. Saturday near the shore of San Diego County’s Black’s Beach. Authorities were alerted by a woman on one of the boats who called 911, according to Chief James Gartland, lifeguard chief for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
Responding lifeguards arrived “in rescue mode,” Gartland said. “The lifeguards, after about an hour of searching and recovering bodies, we were in recovery mode for about five hours after that.”
Lifeguards who first responded battled high tide and low visibility, Gartland said. After wading through “knee to waist deep water,” they reached a stretch of beach strewn with bodies and dotted with life jackets and fuel tanks, the fire department said in a release.
Several other agencies also responded to the area, including San Diego Police, US Customs and Border Protection and the US Coast Guard, the release said.
