Red Sea ship sinks, lifeboats and bodies spotted

An Egyptian passenger ship carrying 1,300 people, including Muslim pilgrims returning from the hajj, has disappeared from radar screens in the Red Sea off the Saudi coast, Egyptian maritime officials said today. Bodies were spotted floating in the sea.

The Egyptian maritime director Mahfouz Taha Marzouk has said the passenger ferry has sunk.

Helicopter crews saw the bodies as well as one lifeboat carrying three people in the vicinity of where the 25-year-old ship, the El Salam 89, was last seen on the radar screens, the maritime officials said. They did not say how many bodies were sighted.

Saudi and Egyptian naval vessels and helicopters are searching for the ship, which disappeared from radar screens shortly after sailing from the western Saudi port of Duba at 7pm local time last night, the maritime officials in Suez said.

The ship was due to have arrived at Egypt’s port of Safaga at 3am local time, but did not, the officials added. Dubah and Safaga lie virtually opposite each other at the northern end of the Red Sea.

“We lost all contact with the ship shortly after it left the Saudi port,” said one maritime official at Suez. Its last position on the radar screens was 62 miles from Duba.

An Egyptian helicopter spotted a lifeboat carrying three people, an official said. He added the search was being hampered by bad weather.

The ship is owned by the Egyptian firm El-Salam Maritime Transport Company and was carrying 1,300 passengers. Some of the passengers are believed to be pilgrims returning from the annual hajj to Mecca, which ended last month.

Mamdouh Ismail, the company’s owner, said the ship was more than 25 years old and was registered in Panama. He refused to make any further comment.

Four Egyptian frigates have sailed to rescue survivors, Egypt’s minister of transport, Mohammed Lutfy Mansour, told CNN shortly before the sinking of the ship was announced.

“The Coast Guard is doing every in its power to try to rescue these people,” Mansour said.

Asked about the safety of the ship, Mansour said: “It met safety requirements. The number of passengers on board is less than the maximum number of people.”

Britain’s top naval officer says he has diverted warship HMS Bulwark to the Egyptian ferry disaster.

A ship owned by the same company, also carrying pilgrims, collided with a cargo ship at the southern entrance to the Suez Canal in October, causing a stampede among passengers trying to escape the sinking ship. Two people were killed and 40 injured.