At least 10 of the 15 people on board were killed when a ferry carrying day laborers sank in the Nile River near the Egyptian capital, authorities said Monday.
The five survivors were taken to a hospital and later released, the Ministry of Labor said in a statement. The cause of the sinking was not immediately clear.
The ministry allocated compensation of about $6,466 to each family of the deceased and about $646 each to the five injured.
Trial of Egyptian security official charged with student kidnapping and murder begins in Rome
The workers were on their way to work at a local construction company. Local media broadcast a livestream video on social media platforms showing divers searching for the dead as villagers waited on the banks of the Nile River. It took a while.
The Nile River seen from above in Cairo, Egypt, on March 22, 2023. On February 26, 2024, 10 ferry passengers drowned when their boat sank in the Nile River. (Mohamed El Shahed/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The incident occurred in the city of Monshat el-Qanater in Giza, one of the three governorates that make up Greater Cairo.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Many Egyptians travel by boat every day, especially in Upper Egypt and the Nile Delta. Sailing along the Nile River is also a popular holiday pastime in the Arab world’s most populous country.
Ferry, rail and road accidents occur frequently in Egypt, mainly due to poor maintenance and lack of regulation.
In 2022, a small truck they were traveling in slipped off a ferry and fell into the Nile River, killing two people and leaving eight missing. In 2015, a collision between a passenger boat and a scow on the Nile killed 35 people.
