21 dead as cargo ship hits party boat north of Cairo

Cairo, EGYPT: Rescuers search for victims in Cairo, Egypt on July 23, 2015 where at least 15 people including two children were killed after a cargo boat collided with a ferry on the Nile, hospital, security and political sources said. Egyptian police have arrested the captain of the cargo boat after the crash north of the capital Cairo, police sources said. Six passengers out of the 25 on board the ferry have been saved while the search is still ongoing for another four missing people, the interior ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page. There were many children on the boat, the security and hospital sources added, without giving the ages of the two children who died. AFP PHOTO/STR

July 23, 2015
CAIRO (AFP) - At least 21 people celebrating an engagement were killed on the Nile north of Cairo late Wednesday when a cargo ship hit their chartered boat, medical and security sources said.

Five of the party were rescued from the river but at least six were still missing early on Thursday.

Security sources said the search for them had been hampered by the darkness.

At least two children were killed. Family and friends of a young couple had hired the boat to celebrate their engagement. It was not clear whether the couple were among the dead.

Police said they had arrested the captain of the cargo boat and his deputy after the accident, one of many that happen on the Nile and off Egypt's coast each year.

In the deadliest such accident in February 2006, an Egyptian ferry sank in the Red Sea, killing more than 1,000 people.