Survivors, bodies recovered from capsized Red Sea tourist boat

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Updated 26 November 2024
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Survivors, bodies recovered from capsized Red Sea tourist boat

Red Sea governor Amr Hanafi speaks to survivors rescued from a capsized vessel in the Red Sea harbour town of Marsa Alam.
  • Team rescued two Belgians, one Swiss national, one Finnish tourist and one Egyptian, governor said, bringing the total number of survivors from the accident to 33

CAIRO:  Rescuers on Tuesday recovered five survivors and four bodies from a dive boat that capsized off Egypt’s eastern coast a day earlier, Red Sea governor Amr Hanafi said.

A military-led team rescued two Belgians, one Swiss national, one Finnish tourist and one Egyptian, the governor said, bringing the total number of survivors from the accident to 33.

The “Sea Story” had been carrying 31 tourists of multiple nationalities and a 13-member crew when it was hit by a large wave near Marsa Alam in southeastern Egypt early on Monday, causing it to capsize.

The four bodies recovered on Tuesday have not yet been identified, and seven people are still missing after 28 were rescued on Monday.

A government source close to rescue operations said the five survivors were found on Tuesday morning inside the boat, which the governor said had been thrown on its side by an early morning wave but had not completely sunk.

“They were found inside one of the rooms which had not filled with water,” the government source told AFP, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

The group had spent at least 24 hours in the overturned vessel after authorities first received distress calls at 5:30 AM (0330 GMT) on Monday.

“Rescue operations are ongoing today, supported by a military helicopter and a frigate in addition to multiple divers,” the Red Sea governor told AFP Tuesday, declining to provide any further details about the operation.

The four bodies recovered on Tuesday were also located inside the stricken vessel.

The boat had embarked on a multi-day diving trip on Sunday and had been due to dock on Friday at the town of Hurghada, 200 kilometers (124 miles) north.

The governor on Monday said it capsized “suddenly and quickly within 5-7 minutes” of the impact with the wave, leaving some passengers — among them European, Chinese and American tourists — unable to set out of their cabins in time.

Rescuers from the military and a passing tourist boat pulled 28 people from the water on Monday.

According to a source at a hospital in Marsa Alam, six tourists and three Egyptians were admitted with minor injuries and discharged on Monday.

The tourists included “two Germans, two Britons, one Spaniard and one Swiss national,” the hospital administrator told AFP, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

According to the governor’s office, the boat was carrying tourists from Belgium, Britain, China, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.

Among the missing are two Polish tourists and one from Finland, according to both countries’ foreign ministries.

Authorities in Egypt have said the vessel was fully licensed and had passed all inspection checks. A preliminary investigation showed no technical fault.

There were at least two similar boat accidents in the Marsa Alam area earlier this year, but no fatalities.

The Red Sea coast is a major tourist destination in Egypt, a country of 107 million that is in the grip of a serious economic crisis.

Nationally, the tourism sector employs two million people and generates more than 10 percent of its GDP.

Dozens of dive boats crisscross between Red Sea coral reefs and islands off Egypt’s eastern coast every day, where safety regulations are robust but unevenly enforced.

Earlier this month, 30 people were rescued from a sinking dive boat near the Red Sea’s Daedalus reef.

In June, two dozen French tourists were evacuated safely before their boat sank in a similar accident.

Last year, three British tourists died when a fire broke out on their yacht.


Israeli snipers shooting children ‘like a game’ at Gaza aid centers: British surgeon

Israeli snipers shooting children ‘like a game’ at Gaza aid centers: British surgeon
Updated 56 min 13 sec ago
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Israeli snipers shooting children ‘like a game’ at Gaza aid centers: British surgeon

Israeli snipers shooting children ‘like a game’ at Gaza aid centers: British surgeon
  • Prof. Nick Maynard: Different body parts being targeted depending on day of the week
  • ‘I’ve never had so many patients die because they can’t get enough food to recover’

LONDON: Israeli soldiers are opening fire on children in Gaza at aid distribution centers, targeting different body parts depending on the day of the week, a British doctor has said.

Prof. Nick Maynard, a gastrointestinal surgeon working at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, told the BBC that he and his colleagues are encountering “clear patterns of injury” in young casualties, including “certain body parts on different days, such as the head, legs or genitals.”

Speaking to the “Today” program on BBC Radio 4, Maynard said: “On one day they’ll all be abdominal gunshot wounds, on another they’ll all be head gunshot wounds or neck gunshot wounds, on another they’ll be arm or leg gunshot wounds.”

He added: “It’s almost as if a game is being played, that they’re deciding to shoot the head today, the neck tomorrow, the testicles the day after.”

Maynard said the victims at the aid distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which he called “death traps,” tend more often than not to be teenaged boys.

“These are mainly from the militarized distribution points, where starving civilians are going to try and get food but then report getting targeted by Israeli soldiers or quadcopters,” he added.

“A 12-year-old boy I was operating on died from his injuries on the operating table — he’d been shot through the chest.”

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READ MORE: British surgeon in Gaza describes wounded Palestinians dying due to malnutrition

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GHF sites, backed by the US and Israel, are manned by private contractors and Israeli soldiers.

At least 875 Palestinians seeking food at the centers have been killed by live fire since May, according to the UN.

Maynard said levels of malnutrition seen in young patients are affecting their ability to recover from their wounds.

“The repairs that we carry out fall to pieces, patients get terrible infections, and they die,” he added. “I’ve never had so many patients die because they can’t get enough food to recover.”

The BBC said other medics working in central and southern Gaza had also reported patterns of gunshot wounds in people shot at GHF centers.


Ancient statue returns to Turkiye 65 years later

Ancient statue returns to Turkiye 65 years later
Updated 19 July 2025
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Ancient statue returns to Turkiye 65 years later

Ancient statue returns to Turkiye 65 years later
  • “It was a long struggle … we won,” Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy said
  • “We brought the ‘Philosopher Emperor’ Marcus Aurelius back to the land where he belongs“

ISTNABUL: Turkiye has repatriated an ancient statue believed to depict Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius from the United States as part of efforts to recover antiquities illegally removed from the country, the government announced on Saturday.

The bronze statue, smuggled from the ancient city of Boubon — now the province of Burdur in southwest Turkiye — in the 1960s, was returned to Turkiye after 65 years, according to Turkish officials.

“It was a long struggle. We were right, we were determined, we were patient, and we won,” Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy said.


“We brought the ‘Philosopher Emperor’ Marcus Aurelius back to the land where he belongs,” he added.

This unique artefact, once exhibited in the United States, was repatriated to Turkiye based on scientific analyzes, archival documents and witness statements, added the minister.

“Through the combined power of diplomacy, law, and science, the process we conducted with the New York Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the US Homeland Security Investigations Unit is more than just a repatriation; it is a historical achievement,” Ersoy said.

“Marcus Aurelius’s return to our country is a concrete result of our years-long pursuit of justice.”

The headless statue had been on display at the Cleveland Museum of Art from April to July, before its return to Turkiye.

Ersoy said Turkiye was determined to protect all its cultural heritage that has been smuggled out.

“We will soon present the Philosopher Emperor to the people of (Turkiye’s capital) Ankara in a surprise exhibition,” he announced.


21 dead in Iran as coach overturns: state media

21 dead in Iran as coach overturns: state media
Updated 19 July 2025
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21 dead in Iran as coach overturns: state media

21 dead in Iran as coach overturns: state media
  • The accident, the cause of which remains unclear, occurred near Kavar
  • Iranian media showed images of a coach lying on its side on a mountain road

TEHRAN: At least 21 people were killed and nearly 30 injured when a coach overturned in southern Iran on Saturday, state media reported.

The accident, the cause of which remains unclear, occurred near Kavar, a town about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the capital, Tehran.

“Unfortunately, 21 deaths have been recorded,” Kavar Hospital director Mohsen Afrasiabi told state television, adding that 29 people were injured.

Iranian media showed images of a coach lying on its side on a mountain road.

Iran has a poor road safety record, with nearly 20,000 deaths from traffic accidents in the 12 months to March, according to official news agency IRNA.


Unidentified drone kills PKK member, injures another near Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah, sources say

Unidentified drone kills PKK member, injures another near Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah, sources say
Updated 19 July 2025
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Unidentified drone kills PKK member, injures another near Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah, sources say

Unidentified drone kills PKK member, injures another near Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah, sources say
  • Officials said this is the first attack of its kind in months

BAGHDAD: An unidentified drone attack killed a member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and injured another near Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah on Saturday, security sources and local officials said, the first attack of its kind in months.


Six local officials detained over Iraq deadly mall fire

Six local officials detained over Iraq deadly mall fire
Updated 19 July 2025
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Six local officials detained over Iraq deadly mall fire

Six local officials detained over Iraq deadly mall fire
  • The ministry said: “There was clear negligence among several officials and employees” in Kut
  • Three local officials, including the head of civil defense in Kut, had been detained

BAGHDAD: Iraq has detained six local officials and suspended other public employees following a fire that killed 61 people at a shopping mall earlier this week, authorities said Saturday.

The blaze, which broke out late Wednesday in a newly opened shopping mall in the eastern city of Kut, is the latest fatal disaster in a country where safety regulations are often ignored.

After an initial investigation, the interior ministry said “there was clear negligence among several officials and employees” in Kut, located around 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

It added that three local officials, including the head of civil defense in Kut, had been detained, and 17 employees suspended from work until further notice.

The Commission of Integrity, an anti-graft body, said later that security forces had detained three more officials “over the violations that led to the fire” at the Corniche Hypermarket Mall, including the head of the violations department at Kut’s municipality.

Officials say their investigation is ongoing, and the number of detainees may change.

Safety standards in Iraq’s construction sector are often ignored, and the country — its infrastructure weakened by decades of conflict — frequently experiences fatal fires and accidents.

Fires increase during the blistering summer as temperatures approach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).

The cause of the mall fire was not immediately known, but one survivor told AFP an air conditioner had exploded on the second floor before the five-story building was rapidly engulfed in flames.

Several people told AFP they lost family members — and in some cases whole families — who had gone to shop and dine at the mall days after it opened.