Sixteen people remained missing on Tuesday morning after a boat carrying tourists on a Red Sea diving trip sank when it was hit by a large wave off the Egyptian coast a day earlier, according to the Egyptian authorities.
Local and military search teams rescued 28 people on Monday, including foreign tourists and Egyptian crew members, the governor of Egypt’s Red Sea province, Maj. Gen. Amr Hanafy, said in a statement on Monday evening. The survivors, who he said had only minor injuries, were taken to a hotel.
The boat and its 44 passengers had left Marsa Alam, a beach town on the Red Sea, on Sunday for a six-day diving trip that was scheduled to end on Friday in Hurghada, a resort farther north along the coast.
The area is dotted with popular diving and snorkeling destinations known for their vivid, climate-change-resistant coral reefs. Off Marsa Alam, tourists can swim with dugongs — a species of sea cow similar to manatees — and with dolphins.
The boat that sank, the Sea Story, was carrying 13 Egyptians, as well as 31 visitors from countries including the United States, Belgium, Britain, China, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland, according to the statement.
Of those still missing after Monday’s rescues, four were Egyptian, and 12 were foreign, the statement said. Reuters, citing General Hanafy, said that three bodies had been recovered on Tuesday, but that had not been independently confirmed.
The Egyptian Meteorological Authority had warned on Sunday morning of coming high waves and turbulence in the Red Sea. It was unclear whether the crew had seen the warning before setting off that day.
According to the statement, the passengers and crew reported that a large wave suddenly hit the boat early Monday morning, capsizing the 111-foot vessel. Within seven minutes, it had sunk, trapping some of the passengers inside their cabins.
Marsa Alam residents said that they had noticed high waves around the time of the sinking.
The first distress call reached the authorities at 5:30 a.m., the statement said. A nearby diving boat rescued some of the passengers, and the Egyptian Navy found others.
General Hanafy said that the Sea Story had passed a safety inspection in March and had no recorded technical defects. He added that the investigation into the boat’s sinking was ongoing.
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