RedSea4u

Three sailors perished and 10 are still missing after a cargo ship sank off the Red Sea coast of Egypt on Monday shortly after leaving port, a maritime official said.

Thirteen people were rescued when the 5,600-tonne Ibn al-Battuta went down in the sea about 35 nautical miles off the port of Safaga, a port official told AFP.

Among those rescued were the ship's Sudanese captain and Somali, Iraqi and Bangladeshi crewmen, the official added.

He said two vessels and helicopters were involved in the search for the missing members of the crew, which include Sudanese, Indians and Pakistanis.

The ship was carrying a shipment of silicon and had set sail from the port of Abu Dhunaima, near Safaga, on its way to the United Arab Emirates, the official said, without giving details about the vessel's ownership.

In February 2006, a ferry sank as it was travelling to Safaga from Saudi Arabia, drowning 1,000 passengers in one of the deadliest disasters in modern maritime history.

In 1991, another Egyptian ferry sank in the Red Sea en route between Jeddah and Safaga, leading to the loss of nearly 500 lives.


Source: AFP

Such a tragic event, there seems to be so many accidents out there in the Red Sea these days, its soo sad. Prayers go out to the families.

In Feb 2006 i lived not far from the hospital in Dahar where they brought a lot of the bodies after the terrible disaster,it was awful to see hundreds of people just living on the street outside the hospital in the hope that maybe the body of their loved ones would be brought there.Many of the local hotels and restaurants sent food out to them.They stayed there for quite a few days until the government eventually provided buses to take them back to where they lived.

How very sad.
What a lovely gesture from the hotels and restaurants in 2006