3 dead, 27 injured, as boat capsizes off San Diego

Three people were killed and more than two dozen others were hospitalized Sunday after a boat capsized and broke apart in rough water just off the San Diego coast.

It happened during a suspected human smuggling operation, authorities said.

Lifeguards, the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies responded around 10 a.m., following reports of an overturned vessel in the waves near the rugged peninsula of Point Loma, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

The original call mentioned just a handful of people overboard, but as rescuers arrived the magnitude of the incident became more apparent.

"Well, I was one of the first rescuers on scene and I saw people just getting sucked out, floating out. Some of them were face down," said lifeguard lieutenant Rick Romero. "So I had to call the cavalry and get all the resources I needed to come down here."

Seven people were pulled from the waves, including three who drowned, reported Romero.

A total of 27 people were transported to hospitals with a wide variety of injuries including hypothermia.

Most of the victims were able to walk themselves to ambulances.

Officials said the group was overcrowded on a 40-foot (12-meter) cabin cruiser that is larger than the typical open-top wooden panga-style boats often used by smugglers to bring people illegally into the U.S. from Mexico.

They believed everyone on board was accounted for right away, but crews in boats and aircraft continued to search the area for several hours for other possible survivors.

Border Patrol on Friday announced that law enforcement officials would be ramping up operations to disrupt maritime smuggling off the coast of San Diego this weekend.

As warmer weather comes to San Diego, there is a misperception that it will make illegal crossings safer or easier, the agency said in a statement.

(Image Credit: AP)