EGYPT: Angry Egyptians seeking news of relatives lost aboard the ferry which sank in the Red Sea last week ransacked the office of the vessel's owners yesterday and set fire to the furniture, witnesses said.
A crowd of men hurled chairs, filing cabinets and air-conditioning units out of the first floor office, piling them up in front of the building and setting fire to them, Reuters Television footage showed. Police fired tear gas to drive away the chanting crowd and firefighters were brought in to douse the flames.
"The company is responsible for what happened because the boat was old," said Ahmed Seif, adding that he was not involved in the attack on the premises but was frustrated by a lack of information from the firm and the government on the disaster. Mr Seif, from Sohag in southern Egypt, was desperate to find out what had happened to his brother.
The 35-year-old Al Salam 98 ferry, which worked in Italy until it was bought by the Cairo-based el Salam Maritime Transport Company, sank early on Friday during a voyage from Saudi Arabia to Safaga on the Egyptian Red Sea coast.
Cabinet spokesman Magdi Radi said more bodies and one survivor had been found since Sunday evening, taking the total number of dead to 244 and the number of survivors to 388.
The ship was carrying 1,414 people when it went down and more than 700 people not accounted for are feared dead.
Witnesses reported a fire on board the ship before it sank. The authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the disaster.
Relatives have been angered by survivors' accounts of the way the ferry continued its voyage for several hours after the fire broke out below deck and accounts of people spending up to 24 hours in the sea waiting for help.
Officials were examining reports that the captain of a passing ship had failed to move to rescue passengers. An official at the transport ministry said the captain in question had been suspended pending investigation.
The crowd in Safaga, desperate for information, swelled to more than 1,000 over the weekend, when they scuffled with riot police and threw stones at officials at the port where the ferry had been due to arrive on Friday.
By Monday relatives, who complained about rough and insensitive treatment by police, began to disperse as some learned the fate of their loved ones and others travelled to Cairo to try to identify and collect bodies. - (Reuters)