Three dead after boat capsizes off San Diego coast

A US Coast Guard helicopter flies over boats searching the area where a boat capsized just off the San Diego coast (Denis Poroy/AP)

Three people have been killed and 27 are in hospital after a wooden boat capsized during a possible human smuggling operation just off the US San Diego coast.

Local lifeguards, the US Coast Guard and other agencies responded following reports of an overturned vessel near the peninsula of Point Loma, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.