An oil service ship sank in the early hours of Wednesday morning off the coast of Ras Ghareb in the Red Sea Governorate.

The accident resulted in the death of the ship’s captain after he refused to leave until the 11 crew were rescued, and the search is still underway for one of the engineers.

The authorities managed to rescue 11 people who were on board the sinking ship, according to what was revealed by Hassan Fouad El-Tayeb, a marine expert and head of the Board of Directors of the Maritime and Environmental Rescue Association in Hurghada, in media statements. He added that the association had received a report that the Inspecta 7 ship, which is a supply ship operating in an oil company and affiliated with one of the Ministry of Petroleum bodies in Ras Ghareb, sank. He explained that the authorities and rescue personnel rushed to the accident site, where 11 engineers on board were rescued while the ship’s captain, Yousri Sultan, drowned.

The ship had set off from Ras Ghareb in the Red Sea Governorate on its way to Abu Znaima in South Sinai and ran aground, which caused water to leak inside. The captain’s attempts to save the situation failed, while preliminary investigations revealed that the ship had collided with the wreck of a sinking boat.

The authorities sent some ambulances to the accident site to transport the injured engineers to Ras Ghareb Hospital while the rescue teams continued to search for the missing engineer. A few days ago, the Egyptian authorities revealed for the first time the death of a worker during the flotation of the ship Ever Given, which ran aground in the Suez Canal last March.