By Jesus Sanchez
Times Staff Writer

Border authorities today searched for one person in one of the most treacherous stretches of the Arizona desert after finding the bodies of five people who illegally crossed the border near Gila Bend in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees.

Search teams on the ground and in the air were hampered by high winds as authorities made a last-ditch attempt to find the person who split off from the main group of 10 people, U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Andy Adame said. It was unclear whether the missing person was a man or a woman.

"What we are up against are the high winds that have covered up the foot tracks," Adame said.

After one of the survivors reached a ranch looking for help, search teams on Sunday afternoon found the bodies of two men and two women in the desert about six miles west of Gila Bend and one mile south of U.S. Highway 8. One man died shortly after being taken to a hospital.

The cause of the deaths had not been determined.

Two other members of the group remained hospitalized in stable condition, and the other two were in Border Patrol custody, Adame said. Authorities did not know how long the group had traveled and were trying to learn if a smuggler was involved.

Adame said that the section of desert where the group tried to cross is one the most remote and dangerous along the U.S.-Mexico border and includes a military bombing range.

"They walked through the most treacherous part of the Arizona desert," Adame said. "There is no water out there, and there are no residents out there. There is no where to seek to help."

The five dead are the most recent casualties from a stream of immigrants seeking to evade heightened border security in an effort to enter the United States illegally.

Since Oct. 1, more than 90 illegal immigrants have been found dead in the Arizona desert, according to Associated Press. About two dozen people have died during the same period crossing the desert in California near El Centro, including four who died in early July.

Times staff writer Steve Lopez contributed to this story.