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(Reuters) - Divers found 25 bodies on Monday after a pre-dawn fire sank a scuba diving vessel off a Southern California island, leaving nine people unaccounted for, as the U.S. Coast Guard continued its search, media reported.

Representatives for the Coast Guard’s division in Los Angeles and the Santa Barbara, California, Sheriff’s Office could not immediately confirm the reports from CBS News and the Associated Press, of the recovery operation in waters off Santa Cruz.