03-02-06, 11:43 AM
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blimey
an egyptian cruise liner with 1300 people aboard has disappeared from the radar in the Red Sea near Saudi 
Quote:
CAIRO (Reuters) - Planes and boats searched the Red Sea on Friday for a ferry which disappeared with some 1,300 passengers between the Saudi port of Duba and the Egyptian port of Safaga, a shipping company official said.
Coastal stations last had contact with the Al Salam 89 at about 10 p.m. (8:00 p.m. British time) on Thursday and did not receive any SOS message from the crew, official Adel Shukri said.
"Search and rescue planes and boats are out looking for it and we're trying to get in touch with it," added Shukri, the head of administration at el-Salam Maritime Transport.
He said he did not know what might have happened, but the weather on the Saudi side had been very poor, with high winds and rain. "All possibilities exist," he added.
The ferry, carrying mostly Egyptian workers back from Saudi Arabia, left Duba towards the north of the Red Sea at about 6.30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. British time) on Thursday and should have arrived in Safaga at about 2 a.m. (midnight British time). It had originally come from the Saudi port of Jeddah further south.
A Saudi border control official in Jeddah said: "We don't know yet what happened -- if it sank, or overturned, or what."
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