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1,000 still missing in Red Sea ship disaster
Only 376 of 1,400 people on board 'Al-Salam 98' could be saved. First pics | Site
Egyptian and Saudi rescue boats have picked up a total of 376 survivors from the Red Sea ferry that caught fire and sank, government officials in the two countries said on Saturday.
But more than 1,000 other passengers and crew on the ship are feared to have drowned, leading to angry scenes outside this port as relatives demanded information from the authorities. The Governor of Egypt's Red Sea province, Bakr el-Rashidi, said that 376 people had been rescued from the sea by Saturday morning.
Earlier police had put the survivor toll at 435, but this was later retracted as a case of double-counting by staff in the rescue operation room in Safaga.
Saudis vessels have retrieved another 22 survivors -- 20 Egyptians and two Saudis, a government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Distraught relatives protest against Govt apathy
Al-Salam 98 |
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| Capacity: 1,487 Built: Italy 1970 Length: 118m (388ft) Gross tonnage: 11,779t Owner: El-Salam Maritime |
Hundreds of relatives of passengers pushed and shoved a line of riot police at Safaga port gates, occasionally breaking through, as frustration built up over the lack of information about those missing from the ferry's 1,400 passengers and crew.
Port officials did not distribute lists of survivor names to the crowd. At times the relatives hurled rocks at the police, who retaliated with tear-gas.
"No one is telling us anything," said Shaaban el-Qott, from the southern city of Qena, who was furious after waiting all night at the port gates for news of his cousin. "All I want to know if he's dead or alive."
Referring to the President, el-Qott added: "May God destroy Hosni Mubarak."
A hysterical woman banged on an iron gate to the port, where survivors from the "Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98" ferry were being brought ashore.
How the ship sank
The ship sank in the dark hours of Friday morning while ferrying people and cars between the Saudi port of Dubah and Safaga, on the opposite side of the Red Sea. Survivors said a fire broke out, got out of control and an explosion was heard. The vessel apparently sank suddenly as no distress signal was received.
"Fire erupted in the parking bay where the cars were," said passenger Ahmed Abdel Wahab, 30, an Egyptian who works in Saudi Arabia. "We told the crew: 'Let's turn back, let's call for help,' but they refused and said everything was under control.
Wahab said that as passengers began to panic, "crew members locked up some women in their cabins." "After a while, the ship started to list and they couldn't control the fire. Then we heard an explosion and five minutes later the ship sank," said Wahab.
A martial arts trainer, Wahab said he spent 20 hours in the sea, sometimes holding on to a barrel from the ship and later taking a life-jacket from a dead body, before he was hauled on to a rescue boat.
Governor Bakr el-Rashidi said that as the crew was fighting the fire, "the ship tipped over, the wind was very strong, and people moved to one side, so all of that caused the ship to sink. It happened so quickly."
Transport Minister Mohammed Lutfy Mansour said investigators were trying to determine whether the fire, which he described as "small," led to the sinking. He denied there were explosions.
President Mubarak flew to the port of Hurghada, about 60 kilometers further north, on Saturday and visited survivors in hospitals. Unusually, state television broadcast pictures of survivors talking to the President from their hospital beds, but did not air what they were saying.
Mubarak was accompanied by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and four other ministers.
A group of nearly 140 survivors came ashore at Hurghada shortly before dawn. Wrapped in blankets, they walked down a rescue ship's ramp, some of them barefoot and shivering, and boarded buses for a local hospital. Several were on stretchers.
Many survivors said the fire began about 90 minutes after departure, but the ship kept going. Their accounts varied on the fire's location, with some saying it was in a storeroom or the engine room.
"They decided to keep going. It's negligence," one survivor, Nabil Zikry, said before he was moved along by police, who tried to keep the survivors from talking to journalists.
