Three dead as boat with 40 immigrants founders on US coast

MIAMI, Friday (AFP)

Three people drowned after a boat carrying some 40 immigrants ran into trouble off the southern Florida coast Friday, US officials told AFP after rescuing 30.

Several people were still believed missing from the vessel, carrying mostly immigrants from the Dominican Republic.

"We got three people deceased and the number of rescued people rose to 30, three of them are in hospitals," said US Customs and Border Patrol spokeswoman Elee Erice.

Some of the passengers were found exhausted on shore after they swam to the coast from the vessel.

"We should be looking for another group of nine people, approximately, still missing, according to the information the US Coast Guard got after interrogating people rescued," she said. "We still don't know the nationalities of the deceased. The boat has a Dominican Republic flag, but we don't know yet where it was coming from," she said.

"The majority of them are from the Dominican Republic, and four from Brazil," said US Coast Guard spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson.