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Florida Coast Guard
Photo: MARCO BELLO / REUTERS
The US Coast Guard is searching for survivors after a suspected smuggling boat capsized off Florida.
Unless additional information is received suggesting survivors, the "active" search will cease at sunset, the US Coast Guard's Jo-Ann Burdian said Thursday.
A total of five bodies have been recovered since the boat accident on Saturday.
Only one of the 40 occupants apparently survived.
According to previous knowledge, the boat started on Saturday evening from the Bimini archipelago in the Bahamas and then got caught in a storm and had an accident.
The US Coast Guard was not alerted until Tuesday morning when the crew of a cargo ship discovered the capsized boat with one survivor.
A body was recovered on Wednesday.
The capsized boat was discovered about 40 miles east of the city of Fort Pierce on Florida's east coast.
The authorities assume a case of people smuggling.
Bimini is the westernmost group of islands in the Bahamas - closest to the US mainland.
The Bahamas are known as a way station for gangs of people smugglers who want to bring refugees and migrants from impoverished Haiti to the United States.
cop/AFP