VIDEO: Smuggling boat with over 15 migrants washes ashore in San Diego 

More than 15 undocumented migrants arrived at a San Diego beach on Wednesday after being brought to the U.S. coast in what appears to be a smuggling scheme, officials said. 

The U.S. Coast guard received a call from lifeguards in San Diego at around 3:30 p.m. reporting several individuals jumping off of a 40-foot Sportsfisher that had beached itself near the south end of Mission Beach, reported FOX 5. 

The U.S. Coast Guard, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vessel, and several lifeguard boards responded to the scene, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. 

According to witnesses, the individuals onboard the boat scattered by running toward the residential areas of the surrounding neighborhood. 

“I thought at first it was a lifeguard training or something. Then it started escalating just getting more and more chaotic,” said beachgoer Michelle Sanora.

“Just turn and start going towards the sand. It stopped, and then 15 to 20 people just got out of the boat and just started running out towards the lifeguard tower,” Sanora added.

“They all looked soaking wet, and then they just jumped into the rocks by the jetty and started hiding. And then all of a sudden we hear sirens and a couple of police officers yelling ‘police’ and a couple of them got arrested, but it looks like some missing as well,” said an eyewitness. 

Five Mexican nationals were arrested and the boat was seized by federal customs.