Egyptian authorities say {an electrical} brief circuit sparked a blaze on a scuba diving boat carrying 15 vacationers and 12 crew members close to Marsa Alam.
Three British nationals are lacking after a scuba diving boat they have been cruising in caught fireplace off Egypt’s Pink Sea shoreline.
In a brief assertion on Sunday, Egypt’s Pink Sea Governorate stated 12 crew members and 12 British vacationers have been rescued when a medium-sized scuba diving boat, christened “Hurricane”, went up in flames off the southern Pink Sea resort city of Marsa Alam.
A search celebration was launched to search out the remaining three British vacationers, whose identities weren’t revealed.
Following an preliminary examination of the vessel, Egyptian authorities stated, “{An electrical} brief circuit within the boat’s engine room sparked the blaze”.
The boat was on a six-day cruise and due again on Sunday when the blaze broke out whereas it was about 25km (16 miles) north of Marsa Alam.
Britain’s Overseas Workplace stated it was involved with the Egyptian authorities and is “supporting the British nationals concerned”.
Unusual in Egypt
Pictures posted on social media confirmed a white motor yacht with the identical identify on fireplace at sea, with thick smoke billowing into the sky.
“We noticed smoke from the boat, it was round 9km [6 miles] from the seashore,” stated Ahmed Maher, a diving supervisor in Marsa Shagra village. “A close-by boat rescued them and dropped them off.”
Deadly boat accidents are unusual in Egypt. In 2021, a ship capsized in a lake close to Egypt’s Mediterranean metropolis of Alexandria, leaving not less than 5 individuals lifeless, together with three youngsters.
In 1991, an Egyptian ferry named Salem Specific – crusing from Saudi Arabia to Egypt – sank, killing as many as 471 individuals, largely Muslim pilgrims.
Egypt’s Pink Sea resorts harbour among the nation’s most famous seashore locations and are standard with European vacation goers. The world has cemented its status as a dive vacation spot with quick access to coral reefs from shores and dive websites providing various marine life.
Lately, Egypt has gone to nice lengths to bolster its tourism business, damage by years of political instability, COVID-19, and the unfavorable financial impact of the warfare in Ukraine.
Egypt’s tourism sector employs two million individuals and generates greater than 10 p.c of the nation’s gross home product.
On Thursday, a Russian vacationer was killed by a shark within the waters off the Egyptian Pink Sea metropolis of Hurghada.