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EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The bodies of at least three people were recovered Tuesday after they drowned while trying to cross the Rio Grande from Mexico, federal and El Paso officials said.
The El Paso Fire Department water rescue team recovered the bodies of a teenage boy and girl and an adult woman on Tuesday, department spokesman Carlos Briano said.
All three were Guatemalan nationals, the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry said. Ministry spokesman Tekandi Paniagua said the boy was 16, the girl was 15 and the woman was 37.
"Our preliminary hypothesis is that, because of intense rains, the river's flow rose as they crossed it," Paniagua said.
The two females were with a group of at least five people who tried crossing the border illegally from Mexico, U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Jose Romero said. Federal agents have the other three in custody.
The boy was with a group of five people swept away by the river current Monday, Romero said. The other four were rescued.
On Sunday, another Guatemalan was one of 10 migrants who died in a truck abandoned in a hot Texas parking lot.
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