Thirty-nine people have been missing for three days after a suspected smuggling boat capsized off the coast of Florida, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Authorities were alerted Tuesday after a man was found clinging to a vessel about 45 miles away from Fort Pierce Inlet, the Coast Guard’s 7th District said in a statement.
The man told the Coast Guard that he and 39 others were on a boat that had run into severe weather, which caused the boat to sink, after starting the trip from Bimini, in the Bahamas, on Saturday.
The man said that no one on board had been wearing a life jacket.
The Coast Guard said they are actively searching for the 39 other people on board and that the incident was part of a suspected human smuggling venture.