Twenty-four drown off Mexico in boat sinking

Oaxaca, Mexico, Oct 20: Twenty-four people believed to be Central American illegal immigrants drowned when their boat sank in bad weather off southern Mexico's Pacific coast, a local emergency official said.

The 24 bodies washed up on beaches near the town of Juchitan in the state of Oaxaca, civil protection official Sergio Segreste told the sources yesterday.

''There is bad weather in that area and we think that is one of the causes of the sinking,'' Segreste said.

Illegal immigrants from Central America typically cross into Mexico by land on their way to the United States but some make the hazardous journey by boat.

Reuters>