Three migrants dead, others rescued from Rio Grande in Mexico

May 29 (UPI) -- Mexican officials have retrieved the bodies of three men and rescued a woman and two young children from the waters of the Rio Grande over the weekend, the immigration authority said Sunday amid a slew of recent migrant deaths in the country.

The National Immigration Institute said in a statement the bodies of the three men were found floating in the river with only one of them carrying identification stating he was from Nicaragua.

The institute under the Interior Ministry said it "regrets the death of these migrants," stating they were attempting to enter the United States when they drowned.

In a separate action, officials on Saturday rescued an adult woman, a two-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy, all Honduran nationals, who were stranded in the Rio Grande at the Railway Bridge, it said.

The officials were sailing upstream when they noticed the three people trapped by the force of the current and the cold waters of the Rio Grande and had them board their airboat before transporting them to Paseo del Rio from where they were taken to a shelter.

The incidents were announced days after the immigration authority said seven migrants died and another 24 were injured with at least 15 hospitalized after a bus they were aboard fell into a ravine in San Louis Potosi on Wednesday.

Among the deceased was a pregnant woman, it said, adding two minors were among the injured.

The survivors were identified as 11 El Salvadorians, seven Hondurans, four Cubans, a Panamanian and a Mexican.

On Wednesday night, a 36-year-old father and his seven-year-old son also died in the southern Suchiate River near the Mexican-Guatemalan border.

The ministry authority said they drowned when confronted with strong currents and torrential rain as they tried to cross into Mexico with a woman identified as the father's wife and the child's mother.

According to the authorities, the trio were crossing together toward Mexico when the current stripped the son from the arms of his father who was carrying him across the river.

They both drowned as the father went in search of his son, it said, adding their bodies were discovered the next day.

The mother will be allowed to stay in Mexico for humanitarian reasons and received treatment at a southern Chiapas hospital, it said.