Egyptian authorities announced Monday that 17 people were missing and 28 others were rescued after a tourist boat capsized off Egypt’s Red Sea. Two Swiss were on board, one was saved, the other is missing.
According to a manager at a diving center close to the rescue operations, a member of the crew who survived the sinking claimed that the boat had been “hit in the middle of the night by a wave, which overturned the boat. on the side.”
Authorities in Hurghada, the Red Sea capital, suspended maritime activities and closed the city’s port on Sunday due to “poor weather conditions.” However, the winds around Marsa Alam remained favorable until Sunday evening, before calming again in the morning, the diving manager explained to AFP.
By Monday afternoon, it had become increasingly “difficult to hope that the 17 missing could be rescued after 12 hours spent in the water,” he explained.
The region’s governor, Amr Hanafi, said survivors were rescued during an air operation, while others were evacuated aboard a military ship. “Research continues actively in collaboration with the navy and the armed forces,” he said in a statement.
The Chinese embassy in Cairo said Monday that two of its nationals were “in good health” after being “rescued when a cruise ship sank in the Red Sea,” according to Chinese state media. The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to AFP that one of its nationals was missing in the accident.
Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Pawel Wronski said authorities “have information that two of the tourists could be Polish citizens.”
