Baby Dies, 2 Kids Feared Drowned After Migrants' Raft Overturns

A 10-month-old baby was found dead Thursday and three other migrants were feared drowned after their raft flipped in the night on the Rio Grande as they tried to cross the US-Mexico border, law enforcement officials said. The missing included a 7-year-old boy and another child believed to be around the same age, as well as a man, the AP reports. Migrants often try to cross the river, mostly in poorly constructed rafts with no safety gear, and the water can be deceptively high and fast-moving.

According to one official, Border Patrol agents encountered a man at about 9:45pm Wednesday evening near Del Rio, Texas. He told them a raft carrying nine people had overturned and his baby son and nephew had been swept away along the other child and man. The agents heard the man's wife and an older son screaming in the darkness and the two were pulled from the muddy water alive, according to a preliminary report of the incident from the official. Another man and his 13-year-old child were rescued nearby, the official said. The children were hospitalized for observation. Border agents searching for the missing found the infant's body, a second official said. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. (More US-Mexico border stories.)