China News Service, March 13 (Xinhua) Comprehensive US media reports, San Diego, California, the US authorities said on the 12th local time that two immigrant smuggling boats capsized near Black Beach, resulting in at least 8 deaths and many missing. One of the deadliest maritime human smuggling tragedies of all time.

Image source: Screenshot from the Associated Press

  Authorities said a Spanish-speaking woman called the police on the evening of the 11th local time to report that a boat carrying about 15 people had capsized in the waves.

  According to the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) report, the dispatcher locked the location of the ship in distress through the GPS information of the caller's mobile phone. After the first rescuers arrived at the scene, they found several remains, two overturned boats, and several life jackets. and fuel barrels.

  The Associated Press reported that the Coast Guard and the San Diego Fire and Rescue Team salvaged a total of eight adult bodies, but no other survivors were found.

  The Associated Press noted that survivors may have escaped after disembarking — including the woman who called the police, whose whereabouts are not known to authorities.

  James Gatland, captain of the San Diego Rescue Team, said that the night of the incident was thick with fog and pitch black.

  "It's a very dangerous place even in daylight," he told a news conference. "There's a lot of sandbars and inshore rip currents...you think you're safe out of the water...but once you step in those holes mile, and the rip current will pull you back out to sea."

  At least some of the victims in the crash were said to be Mexican, but the exact number was unknown.

  The report pointed out that in order to avoid the heavily fortified land border, illegal immigrants often choose to travel by sea.

Hundreds of people-smuggling operations at sea occur each year off the coast of California, sometimes fatally.

  In May 2021, a boat full of migrants was overturned and disintegrated by huge waves off the coast of San Diego, killing 3 people and injuring more than 20 others.