(FLORIDA KEYS)– The U.S Coast guard is reporting that they rescued a Cuban migrant who was found clinging to a support column of the Seven Mile bridge in Big Pine Key.
The man was discovered on Wednesday just before 6:30 a.m. by a woman who was walking her dog.
The resident told authorities that she was walking by the bridge when she heard a whistle. When she shined her flashlight in the direction of the whistle she saw the man clinging to a support beam.
The resident then ran back to her vehicle and contacted the police.
“I ran as quickly as this old body could back to my car where my phone was and called 911,” she said. “So glad the man is alive.”
Coast guard officials were able to lower the man from the bridge and turned him over to the U.S. Border Patrol.
Border Patrol officials reported that the man was one of two migrants who arrived in the area on wind surfboards. The men told them that they traveled from the Matanzas region of Cuba.