Florida (AP):

Rescuers were searching the ocean off Florida for survivors after a boat carrying about 30 people, many of them Haitian immigrants seeking to escape their country's crushing poverty, capsized and sank.

At least nine people were killed, including an infant, in the Wednesday night accident, United States Coast Guard officials said. Sixteen more people were pulled out of the rough waters and likely will survive.

Although the Coast Guard had not established exactly how many people were aboard or how many might still be lost at sea, it appeared most of the passengers were from Haiti and the trip fit the profile of migrant smuggling.

Callous

"The boat was obviously overloaded," Captain James Fitton said. "It's a tragedy that someone would be so callous with human life."

Since October, the Coast Guard had stopped 1,377 Haitians from trying to get to the US, an increase over the 972 during the same seven-month period last year. Four tropical storms and hurricanes battered the Western Hemisphere's poorest country during last year's harvest season, killing 793 people, crippling agriculture and causing $1 billion in damage to irrigation, bridges and roads.

In January, United Nations-sponsored groups said more aid was urgently needed to stave off famine in several areas of the country. For those familiar with the plight of Haitians, the escape attempt was no surprise.