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LOS ANGELES: According to rescuers, at least eight people were killed when two suspected smuggling boats capsized off the coast of southern California on Sunday.
“We lost eight souls,” San Diego’s lifeguard chief, James Gartland, said at a press conference.
“This is one of the worst maritime smuggling tragedies that I can think of in California, certainly here in San Diego,” he added, referring to illegal immigration into the United States.
The cause of the nighttime accident in an area Gartland described as “hazardous” due to sand bars and in-shore rip currents remained unknown.
