SAN DIEGO (AP) - Authorities have rescued 20 people they say tried to illegally enter the United States from Mexico through a rain-swollen storm drain system.
The San Diego Union-Tribune says authorities also found a person dead at around 2:30 a.m. Friday on a beach along the mouth of the Tijuana River in Imperial Beach, south of San Diego.
It’s unknown if the two incidents are connected.
The rescues began Thanksgiving night during a storm after a border agent saw three people trying to cross the border through a drainage culvert.
Authorities learned that others were trapped and lost in the rapidly filling drainage pipes. Thirteen were rescued through a manhole. Several others were rescued at around 1 a.m. Friday.
Authorities say eight were taken to hospitals, at least one with life-threatening injuries.
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