194 bodies recovered after Nile tragedy

Press, 28 May 1983, Page 8

194 bodies recovered after Nile tragedy

NZPA-Reuter Cairo Egyptian Army helicopters and Navy motor boats, and frogmen continued the search yesterday for victims of the fire disaster aboard a Nile ferry in which 317 people were feared dead. Officials said that IS4 bodies had been recovered from the vessel, the two barges it was towing, and the waters of the world’s largest man-made lake behind the Aswan High Dam where the tragedy occurred.

A prosecutor said that the 42-man crew of the ferry, Ramadan 10, had been flown to a jail in Aswan where they were being held

pending investigations into the cause of the fire.

The accident, one of the worst in the history of River Nile navigation, was caused by an exploding cooking gas cylinder. It started a fire which swiftly spread from the boat to the two barges. More than COO passengers were aboard the three vessels and only 325 people were known to have survived.

Most of the passengers were Sudanese, on their way from Aswan to Wadi Haifa.

Sudanese Army and police officers arrived at the scene, 10km south of Abu Simbel, to supervise the burial of the victims and the Carriage to Sudan of survivors aboard three

Egyptian Air Force Hercules transports. Two Sudanese vessels also arrived to join the Egyptians in rescue work. A mass grave overlooking the Nile was hurriedly prepared. The survivors were given shoes, blankets and cash. Most of them were barefooted and clothed only in underwear when the fire started. Presidents Hosni Mubarak, of Egypt, and Jaafar Nemery, of Sudan, together in Khartoum at the time of the disaster, sent their condolences to families of the dead, most of whom were women and children. Reports that a New Zealander was aboard the ferry have not been confirmed.