Nine migrants drown while trying to cross the US-Mexico border

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At least nine migrants have drowned and dozens more have been rescued after trying to cross the Rio Grande River from Mexico into the United States, officials said Saturday.

The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said in a statement that the drownings occurred Thursday, when a large group attempted to cross the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas.

Thirty-seven people were rescued but the bodies of nine migrants were recovered – three by Mexican authorities and six by US agents.

A total of 53 migrants were arrested on the U.S. side and Mexican authorities on their side of the river arrested 39, CBP said in a statement.

No information was provided on the age or nationality of the migrants.

"The search for other possible victims continues," CBP added.

A CBP official told the Washington Post that the mass drowning appeared to be the worst in years along the Rio Grande.

Eagle Pass is in CBP's Del Rio area, where nearly 50,000 migrants were arrested last month, according to government data.

City fire chief Manuel Mello told The New York Times that the migrants were swept away by strong currents about a mile south of the international bridge that connects Eagle Pass to Piedras Negras, Mexico.

Mello noted that drownings had become frequent in the area, with up to one a day.

Recent mass migrant deaths have shed light on the dangerous journey that hundreds of thousands of people undertake each year in an attempt to reach the United States from Mexico.

In June, more than 50 people died after being abandoned in a burning trailer in San Antonio, Texas.

AFP