At least four bodies have been recovered off the coast of the Egyptian city of Marsa Alam, on the Red Sea, after the sinking of a tourist yacht on Monday due to the impact of a wave, as confirmed by provincial authorities, who have indicated that seven other people are still missing after the rescue of five people alive during the last hours.
The governor of the Red Sea province, Amr Hanafi, explained that among the five rescued this Tuesday there are two Belgians, a Swiss and an Egyptian, while highlighting that the identities and nationalities of the fatal victims “remains unknown” according to a statement published by his office through his account on the social network Facebook.
Hanafi has thus raised the total number of rescued people to 33 and has stressed that search and rescue work is still active in the area to try to find those missing after the sinking of the boat, in which there were around 30 tourists – including five Spaniards, already rescued alive – and fourteen crew members.
The Egyptian governor himself specified during Monday that The yacht ‘Sea Story’ had sunk after being hit by “an offshore wave”, which caused it to founder in a space of “between five and seven minutes.” The event took place about 46 nautical miles (about 85 kilometers) off the coast of the African country.
He also specified that among the tourists there were citizens of Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Poland, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, China, Slovakia and Ireland. For now, there are no details about the nationalities of the victims. mortal or missing. In addition, thirteen of the passengers and crew were Egyptian nationals.
In this sense, he stated that the situation was “sudden” and that some of the passengers were in the cabins, so “they could not leave the boat,” while stating that the authorities are in contact with the countries with citizens involved to address the situation. Hanafi also stressed that the authorities gave a certificate of validity to the yacht in March 2024. -used for tourist trips destined for diving activities in the waters of the Red Sea- after a technical inspection, which found no “defects”, before ensuring that investigations into the event are still underway.
The Provincial Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation and has already demanded the delivery of all documents and permits related to the excursion, as well as data on the passengers and crew, while also beginning to take statements from some of the survivors. Sources from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on Monday that five Spaniards had been rescued after the event, while adding that all of them were out of danger. Furthermore, they stressed that so far “there is no record of Spaniards among those missing” in the incident, which took place around 5:30 a.m. (local time) on November 25.
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