Death toll of Red Sea sunken boat rises to 25 - health ministry

Friday 19-12-2014 01:07 PM
Death toll of Red Sea sunken boat rises to 25 - health ministry

A boat is docked at a beach, near a cement factory at El Ain El Sokhna port in Suez, 140 km (87 miles) east of Cairo, July 6, 2012. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

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CAIRO, Dec 19 (Aswat Masriya) – The death toll of the Red Sea sunken boat has risen to 25, and the number of injured has reached 18, the health ministry announced on Friday.

All 25 bodies were recovered and transferred to the Tor Hospital morgue, after which they were handed to their families, the ministry added.

The fishing boat, 'Badr al-Islam', was carrying 40 Egyptian fishermen and sailing in the Gabal al-Zayt region when it collided with a trade ship in the Red Sea early Sunday, killing 13 fishermen.

According to official statements, only two of the 40 fishermen remain missing.

The South Sinai prosecutor ordered on Tuesday the detention of the captain of the Kuwaiti trade ship which crashed into the fishing, as well as his assistant.

The prosecution said that the assistant captain in custody was in charge of the ship when it collided with the boat, after the captain delegated to him the responsibility to sail through the sea.

Two other assistant captains were released from custody.

Egypt's minister of social solidarity announced on Monday granting the families of those killed in the incident compensation worth of 10,000 Egyptian pounds.

Around 1000 people died in the Red Sea in February 2006 when a ferry sailing from Saudi Arabia caught fire, going down in history as one of Egypt's worst sea accidents.

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