(Reuters) – Rescue operations were underway off the coast of Florida on Tuesday to try to find 39 people missing after their boat sank.
A survivor told US authorities that he left Bimini, Bahamas, on Saturday evening with 39 other people, the Coast Guard said in a statement posted on Twitter.
The boat reportedly capsized due to bad weather when it was about 70 km from Florida, halfway between Miami and Cape Canaveral, the survivor said, adding that none of the castaways were wearing life jackets. .
A good Samaritan discovered the man hanging from the boat on Tuesday morning and rescued him before contacting the coast guard. Boats and planes were then dispatched to the scene to carry out searches.
“We suspect human trafficking,” the coast guards wrote in the statement. The nationality of the castaways has not been disclosed.
Shipwrecks of migrant boats, often Haitians or Cubans seeking to reach the United States, are not uncommon off Florida.
(Report Steve Gorman and Brian Ellsworth; French version Camille Raynaud)