Eleven people have been rescued from the overturned vessel

Oct 17, 2013 09:48 GMT  ·  By

Four people have died when a boat carrying migrants overturned in Miami on Wednesday.

The incident took place at around 1 a.m. on Wednesday, reports say. The U.S. Coast Guard has already rescued eleven people.

“The Miami-Dade Police department received a 911 distress call from a cell phone from a person claiming to be clinging from a vessel that had capsized with people in the water,” Coast Guard Commander Darren Caprara tells CBS Miami.

A plane, three boats, a cutter and a helicopter were dispatched to the scene. The boat capsized east of the Government Cut. Haiti and Jamaica natives were among those rescued from the boat.

Four women drowned in the boating accident. One person was airlifted to Mt. Sinai Hospital with non-life-threatening wounds. The illegal immigrant was then interviewed by Border Patrol officials.

“We effectively re-righted the vessel and we tragically found four bodies, adult females, underneath. And then an adult male who somehow was able to find some sort of air pocket and we were able to rescue the male,” Caprara adds.

Border Patrol officials have also detained the survivors on the boat. The exact number of people on board is not known at this point.

“She was attempting to come here and I received that phone call last night around maybe 11 o’clock. And then heard on the news that a boat capsized around one in the morning,” explains Wendy Guillaume, a family friend of one of the women who drowned.

Caprara describes that this type of accident is common when migrant boats set to sea in unsafe conditions.

“Sadly most of these cases have common themes. Taking risky voyages in the dark of night, not using proper navigation equipment, typically they don’t have enough life jackets and boating safety is the last thing on their mind and sometimes they do end tragically,” he details.