4 dead, 25 hospitalized after boat overturns off San Diego coast
Witness photo
and last updated 2021-05-03 09:40:17-04
Four people are dead and several others are injured after a vessel overturned in the waters off Point Loma Sunday morning, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue.
The department reports rescue efforts began being staged near the 200 block of Catalina Boulevard around 10:30 a.m.
The boat was possibly being used to transport undocumented people into the United States, according to Jeffery Stephenson of the Customs and Border Protection Public Affairs Office.
Eyewitness video shot by a bystander who watched from shore shows several people jumping from the boat into rough waters and others struggling to swim to land. The 40-foot boat quickly breaks up in the 5- to 6-feet of surf creating a large swath of debris. Some of the passengers can be seen standing in waist-deep water searching through debris for some of the other passengers.