6 Dead After Tourist Submarine Sinks

A tragedy has taken place off the coast of Egypt. On Thursday morning, a tourist submarine named Sinbad sank .6 miles off the coast of Hurghada, a tourist resort in Egypt’s Red Sea, according to a Facebook post by the Russian embassy in Egypt.

There were 45 tourists aboard the submarine at the time of the incident, according to the Facebook post. Some of those on board were minors, the post said. There were also five Egyptian crew members aboard, both Reuters and the BBC reported.

While the embassy’s social media post claimed that four people were dead, both outlets reported that six people were killed.

The latter outlet, citing an update from Red Sea area governor Amr Hanafy, later confirmed the death count. They additionally reported that 39 people were rescued from the accident.

Though the Russian embassy initially stated that all people on the submarine were Russian, Hanafy later clarified that tourists from India, Norway, and Sweden were also on the vessel. The six people who died, however, were Russian, he said.

No people remained missing, Hanafy added.

As for the victims, they’ve yet to be identified. However, Viktor Voropaev, a Russian official in Hurghada, told the BBC that two of the deceased people were children.

Additionally, Urussu authorities told Russian media that married doctors were among the deceased, the outlet reported. The couple’s two daughters are currently hospitalized, per the outlet.

The cause of the catastrophe is currently unknown, though the BBC, citing circulating reports, suggested that the vessel may have hit a reef.