12 survivors, 15 bodies picked up after ferry sinks

Egyptian maritime director Mahfouz Taha Marzouk has said 12 survivors and 15 bodies have been picked up from a passenger ferry that has sunk in the Red Sea.

An Egyptian passenger ship carrying about 1,300 people, mostly Egyptians, sank in the Red Sea overnight, and rescue ships arriving at the scene today pulled 15 dead and 12 survivors out of the water.

The 35-year-old El Salam 89 went down 40 miles off the Egyptian port of Hurghada, said the head of the Egyptian Maritime Authority, Mahfouz Taha Marzouk

He said 15 bodies and 12 survivors have been found so far.

The cause was not immediately known, but there were high winds and a sandstorm overnight on Saudi Arabia’s west coast, from which the ship departed yesterday evening.

The ship disappeared from radar screens shortly after sailing from the 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 - 120 miles away - at 3am local time.

Helicopters sent up soon after it disappeared saw bodies floating in the water as well as at least one lifeboat carrying three people, Egyptian maritime officials said.

The agent for the ship in Saudi Arabia, Farid al-Douadi, said the Salam 89 was in good condition and left port with fewer than 2,500 maximum number of passengers it is permitted to carry. The passengers were mostly Egyptians, but included Saudis, Sudanese and other nationalities.

Marzouk said the ship – built in 1971 and renovated in 1990 in an Egyptian shipyard, was carrying 1,318 people, including a crew of 96.

“The ship complied with all necessary safety measures,” Egyptian Transport Minister Mohammed Lutfy Mansour told Egypt’s semi-official Middle East News Agency. “The reasons remain unknown. ... the Coast Guard is doing every in its power to try to rescue these people.”

It was not immediately clear who all the passengers were. Egyptian workers often take ships from Saudi Arabia back home across the Red Sea.

Initial reports said some of the passengers may have been Muslim pilgrims returning from the hajj, which ended nearly a month ago. But the Saudi port of Duba is known more as a transit point for workers than pilgrims, who mostly leave through Jeddah, further south.

Duba and Safaga lie virtually opposite each other, about 120 miles apart, at the northern end of the Red Sea, which is an extremely busy sea route, with east-west traffic between Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well north-south traffic through the Suez Canal and to and from the Israeli and Jordanian ports of Eilat and Aqaba.

The ship is owned by the Egyptian firm El-Salam Maritime Transport Company The company’s owner, Mamdouh Ismail, said the ship was registered in Panama. He spoke before the sinking was confirmed and refused to comment further.

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.