A boat off northern Cuba travelling toward the United States sank Saturday after a collision with a Cuban coastguard ship and at least five people died, Cuban state media reported on Saturday. The craft reportedly flipped over after the crash near Bahía Honda, about two hours from the capital, Havana. Among the five known dead were a minor and three women, while 23 people were rescued, the Cubadebate report said. Further details were not released. Cuban officials told the state channel that an investigation was under way. The incident comes amid the biggest migratory flight from the Caribbean island in four decades, spurred by a deepening economic, political and energy crisis. The majority of Cubans leaving go by plane to Nicaragua, then travel overland to the US border, often in Texas and Arizona. But a growing number have fled by boat on the dangerous 90-mile (145km) journey to the southern coast of the United States. Between October 2021 and August 2022, the US Coast Guard intercepted more than 4,600 Cubans travelling by boat, almost six times more than in all of 2020. It is the largest exodus since 1980, when about 125,000 Cubans travelled by sea to the US over six months, an event known as the Mariel crisis.