Egypt says more than a dozen people missing after tourist boat capsized in Red Sea

“THE WAVE HIT”

One surviving crew member said “a wave hit them in the middle of the night and turned the ship sideways,” according to the manager of a dive center close to the rescue operation.

The governor said the ship passed its last safety inspection in March this year and no technical problems were reported.

Authorities in the Red Sea capital Hurghada closed shipping activities and the city’s port on Sunday due to “bad weather conditions.”

But winds around Marsa Alam remained positive until Sunday night and calmed down again in the morning, the dive manager told AFP.

The official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said Monday afternoon that the chances of the missing people being rescued “after 12 hours in the water” were increasing.

There were at least two similar boat accidents in the Marsa Alam region earlier this year, but there were no fatalities.

The Red Sea coast is an important tourism center in Egypt, which has a population of 105 million and is in the grip of a serious economic crisis.

Nationally, the tourism sector employs two million people and produces more than 10 percent of GDP.

Every day, dozens of dive boats crisscross between coral reefs in the Red Sea and islands off Egypt’s east coast; here safety regulations are robust but unevenly enforced.

Earlier this month, 30 people were rescued from a dive boat that sank near the Daedalus reef in the Red Sea.

In June, two dozen French tourists were safely evacuated before their boat sank in a similar accident.

Last year, three British tourists died in a fire on their yacht.