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Four more bodies found in search for survivors of capsized boat off Florida

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The US Coast Guard said it found four more bodies off Florida’s Atlantic Coast from a boat that capsized over the weekend and that it would suspend its search operations by sunset on Thursday unless new information surfaced before then.

The four additional bodies found in the last 24 hours makes for a total of five recovered out of 39 people reported missing, Coast Guard Commander Jo-Ann Burdian said at a news briefing in Miami.

“If we don’t receive additional specific information to help redirect our search, we’ll suspend that active searching, “Burdian said.

Rescue crews have been looking for survivors since a boat overturned in rough seas on Sunday morning after it left the Bahamas Bimini islands, about 50 miles (80 km) east of Miami, on Saturday night.

The vessel capsized about 45 miles (72 km) east of Fort Pierce Inlet, off Florida’s Atlantic coast, about midway between Miami and Cape Canaveral.

Rescue crews earlier recovered the body of one person, the Coast Guard said on Wednesday.

The lone survivor was spotted on Tuesday morning by crew members of a private tugboat. The survivor told authorities after his rescue that he was one of 40 people aboard the boat and nobody aboard had been wearing a life jacket, the Coast Guard said.

Their nationalities have not been released.

In a separate incident, the Coast Guard reported intercepting a sailing vessel off the Bahamas overloaded with191 Haitian migrants believed to be headed for Florida on Wednesday.

Vessel crossings of Haitian migrants have grown more frequent as the Caribbean island nation faces worsening economic and political crises, as well as gang-related kidnappings.

The two incidents underscored a surge in migrants seeking passage to Florida in flimsy vessels through the Caribbean by way of the Bahamas, a known hub for seaborne human smuggling.

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