Seventeen individuals, together with a variety of British nationals, are lacking after a vacationer boat on a diving journey capsized within the Pink Sea.
The Sea Story was carrying 31 vacationers from a number of nations and 14 crew when it despatched a misery sign at 5.30am native time, in line with a press release from Egypt’s Pink Sea governorate.
It was not instantly clear what brought on the four-deck, wooden-hulled motor yacht to sink.
To date 28 individuals have been rescued, leaving 17 individuals lacking.
The British Overseas Workplace confirmed it was offering consular assist to a variety of British nationwide and their households after the incident.
The boat left Port Ghalib, close to Marsa Alam in Egypt, for a diving journey that was as a result of end on Friday within the city of Hurghada, 124 miles (200km) north.
The governor, Amr Hanafi, stated some survivors had been rescued by an plane, whereas others had been transported to security onboard a warship.
“Intensive search operations are below method in coordination with the navy and the armed forces,” Hanafi stated.
Authorities haven’t indicated the doable reason for the incident or issued a breakdown of the nationalities of the lacking individuals. In accordance with unverified native media reviews, these onboard included 4 Britons, 4 Germans, 5 Spaniards, two Belgians, three Slovaks and two Individuals.
The world of Marsa Alam has had at the least two comparable incidents this yr. Each ended with none deaths.
The Pink Coastline is a well-liked vacationer vacation spot in Egypt, a rustic of 105 million individuals that’s within the grip of an financial disaster. Nationally, the tourism sector employs 2 million individuals and generates greater than 10% of GDP.
This month, 30 individuals had been rescued from a sinking dive boat close to the Pink Sea’s Deadalus reef.
In June, 24 French vacationers had been safely evacuated earlier than their boat sank in an analogous accident.
Final yr, three British vacationers died after a hearth broke out on their yacht, engulfing the vessel in flames.
Dozens of diving boats make journeys between coral reefs and islands off Egypt’s jap coast each day. Security laws are identified to be sturdy however erratically enforced.
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