Two ferries collided on the Nile river in northern Egypt on Friday, killing at least three people including two children, after one boat split in two, the government Al Ahram newspaper said.
Rescue workers pulled other victims from the river near the northern city of Rosetta after the accident yesterday, the daily said.
Al Ahram said one ferry was carrying 50 people though its authorized capacity was 30.
State-run Nile TV said 50 people were missing and 12 had been hospitalized. Egypt has been hit by several ferry disasters in the past three years, killing more than 1,000 people.
Public river ferries in Egypt can sometimes be crowded, but authorities do not always record passenger numbers, making an accurate count of the missing difficult.
The two ferries were heading to Rashid City. One was a passenger ferry that broke apart during the accident while the other, carrying both passengers and cars, overturned causing no injuries or fatalities.
A series of road, rail and sea accidents in Egypt in recent years have triggered an outcry over the government’s handling of transport safety.
In 2006, a ship sank in the Red Sea while sailing from Saudi Arabia to the Egyptian port of Safaga, killing 1,034 of the 1,400 people on board.
An Egyptian appeals court in March found the owner of the ferry guilty of manslaughter and sentenced him to seven years in jail, reversing an earlier court decision exonerating Mamdouh Ismail, a member of Egypt’s upper house of parliament.
In 2007, 10 people drowned at the Nile River town of Minya when a ramp connecting a ferry to land collapsed. The same year at Minya, 13 people died when a minibus fell into the Nile while boarding a ferry.
Egyptian Transport Minister Mohamed Mansour resigned in October over a train crash south of Cairo which killed 18 people.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel