Cairo, Mar. 27, (dpa/GNA) – Six foreign tourists were killed and 39 others rescued on Thursday when a recreational submarine sank off Egypt’s Red Sea city of Hurghada, an Egyptian official said.
The sub was carrying 45 vacationers of Russian, Indian, Norwegian and Swedish nationalities, along with a five-member Egyptian crew, when it sank in a harbour in front of a Hurghada hotel, Governor of the Red Sea province Amr Hanafi said in a statement.
The six fatalities were all Russians, he said. Four seriously injured people were hospitalized in intensive care units, according to Hanafi.
There were no missing people in the accident that is under investigation.
“Authorities are continuing their investigations with the crew to determine the cause of the accident,” he said.
The submarine, named Sindbad, was on a cruise around the coral reefs in the Red Sea when the mishap occurred, security and medical sources told dpa.
The Russian consul general in Hurghada, Viktor Voropaev, has so far confirmed to the TASS news agency that five of the tourists killed were Russians, two of them minors.
An Egyptian security source initially said the submarine had suffered an engine failure.
In November, a tourist boat capsized off the Egyptian Red Sea coast, near Marsa Alam city. Of the original 44 people on board, 33 survivors have been rescued. Several bodies were recovered.
At the time, authorities said a large wave hit the boat, called Sea Story, and caused it to capsize.
GNA
PDC