In Egypt, seventeen people missing after tourist boat capsized in Red Sea

Seventeen people, passengers on a tourist boat, went missing on Monday November 25 after 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 fourteen 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.

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. Authorities have not released the nationality of the tourists on board. The cause of the sinking was not immediately clear, but Egyptian weather authorities had warned of turbulence and high waves in the Red Sea on Saturday, according to the Associated Press news agency, and advised against any activity on Sunday and Monday.

Tourism contributes more than 10% of Egypt's GDP

The Red Sea, one of the main tourist destinations in Egypt, 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 in a similar accident.

A year earlier, three British tourists lost their lives when a fire burned their yacht to ashes. Every day, dozens of dive boats explore the coral reefs and islands off Egypt's eastern coast, where strict safety rules are unevenly enforced.