International
Three people died and seven, including two children, are still missing after the shipwreck of a panga off the coast of California, US authorities reported.
The US Coast Guard continues the search for the seven missing people in the accident of a boat near El Mar, California. (Free Press Photo: Taken from @uscgnorcal)
Three people died and seven remain missing, including two children, in the overturn of a boat off the coast of California, authorities reported Monday.
The Coast Guard was alerted that a boat had problems near the municipality of the Sea, on the west coast of the United States, around 6.30 am (13.30 GMT), said Hunter Schnabel, spokesman for the department.
A ship and a helicopter went to the region north of San Diego, where they rescued four crew members who were transferred to the hospital.
“Three people were located and it was found that they had died,” he said.
According to interviews made to the survivors of the incident, nine of the people who were aboard the boat were missing, two of whom are children, Schnabel said.
Two people were “apprehended” hours later, he told AFP.
The spokesman, who did not give information about the point of origin of the boat or his destination, indicated that “it is suspected that some people are of Indian nationality.”
Schnabel added that it was a panga, a wooden fishing boat with the high bow that has also been used to make migrants to enter the United States from Mexico.