One person has died and three missing people are presumed dead after a three-deck pontoon vessel sank off the coast of Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay, US officials said Wednesday.
A dog also died in the capsizing on Tuesday, and 16 others were saved by authorities.
The island is home to the famous former Alcatraz federal prison, which now serves as a tourist destination. The prison was notorious for being inescapable due to the strong ocean currents and cold Pacific waters that surround it.
Alcatraz Island is about 1 mile (1.6 km) off the shore in the bay.
Multi-pronged search effort called off
Search and rescue teams looked for the missing people throughout the night.
The Coast Guard called off the search operation at around sunset on Wednesday evening after hopes of finding them alive all but vanished.
Local police and fire teams had assisted the Coast Guard during the operation, which saw planes, boats and helicopters deployed.
San Francisco fire chief Dean Crispen, in a video posted online by the city’s mayor, said responders were dispatched due to a report of “a boat on fire, 600 yards of Alcatraz” Island around 3:35 p.m. local time (1035 GMT) on Tuesday.
Although there were reports that a fire had taken place on the boat, Crispen said, “We now don’t have any evidence of that.”
Chrispen rescuers had found the three-deck pontoon vessel capsized and almost completely underwater. The boat’s motor was still running and leaking fuel.
One dead person was found at the scene.
San Francisco Fire Department Lieutenant Elias Mariano told AFP news agency that rescuers had used “thermal imaging, tide prediction and modeling to help direct search efforts.”
Mariano called the capsized vessel a “pontoon pleasure boat.” The boat was privately owned and it was unclear if it was heading to Alcatraz at the time of its sinking.
Edited by: Wesley Rahn
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