Sixteen passengers from a tourist boat were reported missing on Monday, November 25, following a shipwreck in the Red Sea off the Egyptian coast, authorities announced. Twenty-eight other people were also rescued. The ship, which carried “thirty-one tourists of different nationalities as well as thirteen crew members”launched distress signals at 5:30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. Paris time), according to a statement from the Red Sea governorate.
Four of the missing are Egyptians, according to the region’s governorate, which does not specify the nationality of the others, but adds that passengers coming from Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Poland, Belgium, Switzerland , from Finland, China, Slovakia, Spain and Ireland were on board.
The Sea-Storya cruise ship specializing in diving, left Port Ghalib in southeastern Egypt on Sunday for a multi-day expedition. He was due to reach Hurghada, 200 kilometers further north, on Friday.
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 press release. The cause of the sinking remains to be determined, but Egyptian meteorological services warned on Saturday of turbulence and high waves in the Red Sea and advised against all activity on Sunday and Monday, according to the Associated Press news agency.
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Tourism contributes more than 10% of Egypt’s GDP
The Red Sea, one of Egypt’s top tourist destinations, attracts millions of visitors every year. The tourism sector, crucial for this country of 105 million inhabitants in the midst of an economic crisis, employs around 2 million people and contributes to more than 10% of its GDP.
Monday’s accident is at least the third of its kind reported this year near Marsa Alam on the Red Sea. Earlier in November, 30 people were rescued from a sinking dive boat near the famous Daedalus Reef. In June, around twenty French tourists were evacuated unharmed before their boat sank.
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A year earlier, three British tourists lost their lives in a fire on their yacht. Every day, dozens of dive boats explore the coral reefs and islands off Egypt’s eastern coast, where strict safety rules are unevenly enforced.
