Boat capsizes off San Diego beach, killing 3 and leaving 9 others missing

At least three people were killed when a small boat capsized Monday morning off the coast of San Diego, officials said. At least nine others were missing as rescue and recovery operations got underway.

The panga-style boat — a small, open, outboard-powered fishing vessel — overturned near Torrey Pines State Beach with at least 16 people on board, a U.S. Coast Guard official told CBS News. Among them were at least two children, according to CBS affiliate KFMB, which also reported that four people were hospitalized in the aftermath of the incident.

The Coast Guard official told CBS News that it is treating it as a suspected human smuggling incident. 

Officials said they are searching for nine missing people off the coast of Del Mar, near Torrey Pines State Beach, on Monday morning after receiving a report of an overturned vessel. The San Diego County Sheriff's Office said its deputies were assisting.

The sheriff told KFMB that no one had been detained in connection with the incident.

A boat that capsized sits on the beach Monday, May. 5, 2025, in at Torrey Pines State beach in San Diego, Calif.Denis Poroy / AP

Video published by the station showed the empty boat near the shoreline at Torrey Pines State Beach, while lifeguards patrolled the water and law enforcement vehicles parked on the sand. A Coast Guard helicopter surveyed the area from above. 

Witnesses reported seeing a boat capsize near the shore at about 6:30 a.m., Lt. Nick Backouris of the San Diego Sheriff's Department told The Associated Press.

"A doctor hiking nearby called in and said, 'I see people doing CPR on the beach, I'm running that way,'" Backouris said.

In addition to sheriff's deputies and the Coast Guard, officials with the Encinitas Fire Department and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol were also at the scene, KFMB reported. A spokesperson for the fire department told the station it was "too early to know whether the individuals on board were undocumented immigrants." 

Jorge Sanchez, the deputy fire chief, also said in an interview at the scene that the immigration status of those on board was "not known at the moment." Sanchez said multiple people were found on the beach after the boat overturned, and confirmed it was considered a "mass casualty incident."

CBS News contacted the San Diego Sheriff's Office for more information.