US Coast Guard searching for 39 people after a boat capsized off the coast of Florida

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The US Coast Guard is searching for 39 people who were on a boat that capsized 45 miles off the coast of Florida.

Officials say the alarm was triggered when a survivor clinging to the capsized vessel was rescued by a dinghy passing east of Fort Pierce Bay, state.

The survivor says the group, none of whom had life jackets, left Bimini in the Bahamas on Saturday night when they encountered bad weather.

The Coast Guard says they are dealing with a “suspected human smuggling enterprise”.

“Coast Guard air and surface crews are actively searching for people in the waters,” they said in a tweet on Twitter.

The accident comes just weeks after the Coast Guard rescued 176 Haitians from an overcrowded, unseaworthy boat as it approached the Florida coast.

The rescue was made after US border and Navy officials discovered the ship 60 feet 25 miles northeast of the Bahamas.

“It is extremely dangerous to sail in the Florida Strait in an unseaworthy vessel, especially off the Florida Keys where the waters are very treacherous with shoals and reefs,” said Chief Petty Officer James Kenny.

“Thanks to the rapid coordination of many different agencies, no lives were lost during this ban.”

There has been a sharp rise in the number of Haitians fleeing the Caribbean nation, which has been through a series of crises, including the assassination of President Jovenel Moss in July and the devastating earthquake last August that killed more than 2,000 people.

The country has also struggled with fuel shortages since October when gangs blocked access to gas stations in Haiti, causing businesses and hospitals to partially or completely shut down.

Just two days ago, the Coast Guard took to Twitter to warn people not to take dangerous sea voyages to reach the United States.

“Sailing the seas with overloaded and underseaworthy vessels is extremely dangerous and can lead to loss of life,” the service wrote on Twitter.

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