San Diego, California - A suspected smuggling boat capsized in the ocean off Black’s Beach in the Torrey Pines area late Saturday, dumping eight to 10 people into the water, eight of whom died, officials said.

A second boat carrying eight people made it to shore successfully, officials said.

Officials learned of the incident when a woman on the vessel that arrived safely called 911 around 11:30 PM local time to say the second boat had capsized and people were in the water. According to San Diego police, the woman told the dispatcher she had traveled into the US from Mexico in the boat.

State and city lifeguards, firefighters, San Diego police as well as officers from US Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard and the University of California, San Diego police responded to the beach, but several factors hampered search efforts, including thick fog and high tides.

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The first San Diego lifeguards to respond were not able to access the beach because of high tide, and ended up wading north through knee- to waist-deep water, officials said.

"After a couple hundred yards, lifeguards on the beach reached dry sand and then began to find lifeless bodies and two overturned pangas spread over an area of about 400 yards," a statement from the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department said. "Several life jackets and fuel barrels were also found."

Lifeguards found seven bodies and an eighth was discovered by Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations officers. The bodies were pulled from knee-deep water and from the waterline up to the beach to dry sand, officials said.

All the victims were turned over to the county Medical Examiner’s Office to be identified.

Helicopters and a Coast Guard frigate were deployed to the area on Sunday after weather conditions had made it impossible to do so earlier.

USA Today cited James Gartland, chief of the lifeguard division in San Diego, who said: "This is one of the worst maritime smuggling tragedies that I can think of in California, certainly here in the city of San Diego."