Search underway off Del Mar coast for 5 possible smuggling-boat victims
Search underway off Del Mar coast for 5 possible smuggling-boat victims
Lifeguards rescued 11 migrants who were dropped off in the ocean early Friday
By PAULINE REPARD
FEB. 28, 2020 6:45 AM
DEL MAR — An intense search was underway off the coast of Del Mar Friday morning for as many as five people missing from a panga smuggling boat.
Lifeguards rescued 11 people suffering mild hypothermia from being in the cold ocean waters before sunrise, said Mike Stein, fire chief for Del Mar, Encinitas and Solana Beach.
He said authorities had reports that 16 people were in distress from what he called a “dump and run,” where a panga boat operator out of Mexico unloads the passengers off the coast so they have to swim to shore.
Stein told reporters, including OnScene TV, that the U.S. Coast Guard was searching the ocean along with an Oceanside harbor police boat and lifeguards from San Diego and Del Mar in boats and a San Diego fire rescue copter.
Residents near Sixth Street and Stratford Court in Del Mar called 911 about 4:30 a.m. to report hearing cries for help coming from the water, sheriff’s Lt. Steve Bodine said.
Deputies checked the beach and saw several swimmers coming out of the ocean. Life guards were summoned to help others get to shore.
Footage from 10 News showed at least one surfer also helping with rescues.
Stein said rescuers had no way of knowing whether the five people who were unaccounted for had made it to shore and left, or were still in the ocean.
Some of the rescued swimmers were in life jackets.
The 11 who were found were taken to hospitals for treatment.
He said searchers in boats were combing the waters in a line pattern and that divers would be brought in.
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