The US Coast Guard has launched a search for 39 people reported missing when a boat capsized off the coast of Florida in what it said was a “suspected human smuggling venture.”

The Coast Guard in Miami received a report about a man “clinging to a capsized vessel approximately 45 miles east of Fort Pierce inlet,” the statement said Tuesday.

The survivor said the boat had left the Bahamas on Saturday night but encountered rough weather and capsized, and that no one on board was wearing a life jacket.

Details to follow…