Egypt rescues handful of ferry survivors

RESCUERS pulled only a handful more survivors from the Red Sea yesterday, dashing hopes of survival for 1,000 people still missing after the sinking of a ferry.

Police put the number of those rescued at 401 only slightly more than the number the day before and an indication that few more survivors would be found. A total of 195 bodies have been recovered.

Among the survivors of the ferry disaster was five-year-old Mohammed Ahmed Hassan who was at sea for more than 20 hours, kept afloat by a life ring.

Doctors at Hurghada General Hospital said the boy was in good condition but apparently had lost his parents, sister and brother.

The Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 was carrying more than 1,400 passengers and crew and 220 cars when it quickly sank early on Friday about 90 kilometres from the Egyptian port of Hurghada. Most of the passengers were Egyptian workers returning from Saudi Arabia.

Outside the port in Safaga where survivors were being taken, about 100 protesters shouted angrily at police and criticised Egypt's president for not providing more information.

On Saturday, similar demonstrations turned violent as family members threw stones at police.

Yesterday demonstrators, who have been waiting in the streets outside Safaga port for almost two days, yelled: "Where is the president, where are our sons? Where are the bodies? We want to know the fate of the children."

"If you don't have the bodies, at least give us [death] certificates and let us go. You have been torturing us for days," shouted Heshmat Mohammed Hassan from Sohag, whose brother is still missing.

The families would need death certificates to claim a payment of 4,332 that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said should go to the family of each victim.

The Egyptian government's rescue effort got off to a slow start. Initial offers of help from the US and Britain were rejected, and four Egyptian rescue ships reached the scene about 10 hours after the ferry was believed to have capsized.

The crisis began when a fire broke out in the ageing vessel's parking bay, as it was about 32km from the Saudi shore where it had sailed from, survivors said. The crew decided to push across the Red Sea, to try to reach Egypt's shores 180km away, despite the fire.

As the blaze grew out of control, many passengers moved to one side of the 35-year-old vessel. An explosion was heard and high winds helped push the unbalanced ship over.

Khaled Hassan, a 27-year-old survivor from the village of al-Dhobiyah near Luxor, who was travelling home after working in Kuwait, said he saw the ship captain jump into a life boat as passengers were left behind.