A small boat overturned Monday in the ocean near San Diego, leaving three dead, four injured and seven missing, according to the US Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard said on X it was searching for nine missing people in the water about 15 miles north of downtown San Diego, along Torrey Pines State Beach, before later revising the number of missing to seven. CNN has reached out for more information about the missing. The agency confirmed the search was ongoing Monday evening.
The four injured were sent to hospitals, authorities said. Their injuries range from mild to severe, Encinitas Deputy Fire Chief Jorge Sanchez told CNN.
The incident has the “potential to be a mass casualty event,” depending on the status of the nine missing, Sanchez said.
Coast Guard officials told The Associated Press they did not know where the 12-foot boat was coming from before it flipped.
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.
Hikers and others at Torrey Pines State Beach reported seeing a boat capsize near the shore about 6:30 a.m., 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.
The incident is under investigation, California State Parks said.
The Coast Guard told CNN it was providing assistance to lifeguards coordinating the response. The agency has deployed a 45-foot-long rescue boat and a helicopter to search for the missing people in the water, a spokesperson said.
Multiple agencies have been involved with responding to the incident, including California State Parks, Del Mar Lifeguards, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, the US Coast Guard and the US Border Patrol.
A small craft advisory was in effect Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service, which noted, “Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.”
Pangas are open boats designed for fishing but commonly used by smugglers.
“They were not tourists,” Coast Guard Petty Officer Chris Sappey told the AP. “They are believed to be migrants.”
Sappey later told CNN 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.”
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.
