Ship with 1,400 sinks in Red Sea

AN EGYPTIAN passenger ferry carrying around 1,400 people, mostly Egyptian workers returning from Saudi Arabia, sank in the Red Sea on Thursday night. Search and rescue teams retrieved dozens of dead bodies from the water, official sources said on Friday.

AN EGYPTIAN passenger ferry carrying around 1,400 people, mostly Egyptian workers returning from Saudi Arabia, sank in the Red Sea on Thursday night. Search and rescue teams retrieved dozens of dead bodies from the water, official sources said on Friday.

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Egyptian state television quoted naval sources as saying rescue teams had also picked up 100 survivors but other official sources gave numbers between 14 and 20 for those found alive.

The 35-year-old ship, "Al-Salam Boccaccio 98," which was also carrying around 220 vehicles, went down 70 km off the Egyptian port of Hurghada, the head of the Egyptian Maritime Authority, Mahfouz Taha Marzouk, said.