Maritime chiefs admitted that they always knew where the “missing” freighter Arctic Sea was, but agreed to keep silent in a bid to bring a dangerous hijacking drama to a bloodless end.

Rescue boats have picked up 435 survivors from the Egyptian ferry that caught fire and sank in the Red Sea, police said today as their officers struggled to hold back hundreds of people trying to push their way into the port of Safaga to get information about their loved ones among the ship’s 1,400 passengers and crew.

Rescue boats and helicopters have converged in the choppy waters of the Red Sea, searching for survivors of an ageing ferry that sank with more than 1,400 people on board, mainly Egyptian workers returning from Saudi Arabia. Most were feared lost but officials said at least 324 made it to safety.

Coast Guard vessels have pulled dozens of bodies from the water today after an Egyptian passenger ferry carrying around 1,300 people (or up to 1,415 according to some reports), mostly Egyptian workers returning from Saudi Arabia, sank in the Red Sea overnight.

Sailors from the United States Navy may board thousands of commercial ships in international waters to search for weapons of mass destruction, under a landmark pact reached this week between the US and Liberia, the world’s No 2 shipping registry.