US Coast Guard suspends search for three missing people after boat sinks near Alcatraz

The US Coast Guard has suspended its search for three missing people after a pontoon boat capsized around 600 yards from Alcatraz Island on Tuesday.

One person is known to have died in the disaster.

"Suspending a search is one of the hardest parts of the job and our condolences are with the families of all involved," said coastguard commander Capt Jarod Toczko in a statement on Wednesday evening, local time.

Toczko highlighted that 20 people had been rescued, and paid tribute to the partner agencies involved. It is not yet know what caused the vessel to capsize, and the cause of the incident remains under investigation.

San Francisco Fire Department chief Dean Crispen earlier said that a report of a vessel in distress had arrived at 15:37 local time on Tuesday (22:37 GMT).

A marine unit first on the scene witnessed a man in the water "in severe distress" and initiated CPR, Crispen said. That man was declared deceased when he was brought to shore.

Crispen said 20 adults, mostly family members, were on the three-deck pontoon boat, a 50ft (15m) cabin cruiser called Volare, and they were "engaging in some kind of memorial service" when the boat went down.

Three people on the boat were injured and then taken to a local hospital, where they were in a stable condition, Crispen told a news conference.

The man who died was 79-year-old Clifford Joseph Boisa, said the San Francisco medical examiner' office.

Boisa was a resident of Sutter County, which is around a two-hour drive north-west of San Francisco.

The other people who were travelling on the boat on the boat returned safely to shore, and were not injured.

The fire department chief said the initial alert had indicated a vessel was on fire.

But he said later there was no evidence of a blaze when the fire service arrived at the scene, with witnesses reporting rough seas and a vessel that began to take on water and was turned over in the bay.

Longshoreman Justin Marceline, who alongside fisherman Mike Montoya helped rescue people from the vessel, according to Reuters news agency, said it was "complete chaos when we showed up".

"Every time we had to grab a person, each one of them, either they were exhausted or they were frantic and were flailing," Marceline said.