Police use tear gas as ferry relatives riot

HUNDREDS of relatives of passengers on a ferry that sank in the Red Sea attacked the offices of the ship’s owners in Safaga, Egypt, yesterday.

Angry relatives threw furniture into the street and burned the company’s sign. Riot police fired tear gas to restore order.

Family members also tried to storm a hospital in another port town after it displayed photographs of corpses retrieved from the sea. They wanted to get into the hospital morgue to see if their loved ones were there.

Since the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 sank with the loss of about 1,000 lives early on Friday, relatives have complained and occasionally rioted over the lack of information and have accused the authorities of mishandling rescue efforts.

The governor of Red Sea province, Bakr al-Rashidi, yesterday said only 388 of the more than 1,400 people on board were known to have survived. This was 13 people fewer than the figure given by Egyptian police.

Al-Rashidi said the number of corpses retrieved had risen from 195 to 244.

Most of the passengers were low-income Egyptians returning from working in Saudi Arabia or Gulf countries.

The ferry was in the early stages of its 130-mile voyage from Saudi Arabia to Egypt when a fire broke out in the parking area.

Survivors say the captain decided to push on toward the Egyptian port of Safaga, but the fire spread, and in high winds the ship capsized.

Independent Egyptian newspapers have accused the government of protecting the ship’s owner, who they say is close to a top official in government.