An Irish person is believed to have been among the passengers on board a tourist yacht which capsized yesterday in the Red Sea.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said that it is “aware of this incident and is providing consular assistance”.
Egyptian authorities said more than a dozen people including foreigners were still missing, with 28 others rescued.
The vessel carrying 31 tourists of various nationalities and a 13-member crew sent out a distress call at 3.30am Irish time yesterday, a statement from Egypt’s Red Sea governorate said.
It said 16 people are missing – 12 foreigners, including two Britons, and four Egyptians – updating an earlier figure of 17 missing.
The statement said the boat, the “Sea Story”, is owned by an Egyptian national.
On board were people from Belgium, Britain, China, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.
The yacht embarked on Sunday on a multi-day diving trip from Port Ghalib near Marsa Alam in the southeast, and had been due to dock on Friday at the town of Hurghada, 200km north.
Governor Amr Hanafi said some survivors were rescued by an aircraft, while others were transported to safety aboard a warship.
“Intensive search operations are under way in coordination with the navy and the armed forces,” Mr Hanafi added in a statement.
The Red Sea governor said initial reports suggest “a sudden and large wave” struck the boat, causing it to capsize within five to seven minutes.
Some passengers were unable to escape as they were inside their cabins at the time, he added.
According to a manager of a diving resort close to the rescue operation, one surviving crew member said they were “hit by a wave in the middle of the night, throwing the vessel on its side”.
The governor said the vessel had passed its latest safety inspection in March 2024, with no technical issues reported.
Authorities in the Red Sea capital of Hurghada on Sunday shut down marine activities and the city’s port due to “bad weather conditions”.
But winds around Marsa Alam had remained favourable until Sunday night, the diving manager told AFP, before calming again by morning.
By yesterday afternoon, it had become increasingly unlikely that those missing would be rescued “after 12 hours in the water”, he said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The Marsa Alam area saw at least two similar boat accidents earlier this year but there were no fatalities.
The Red Sea coast is a major tourist destination in Egypt, a country of 105 million that is in the grip of a serious economic crisis.
Nationally, the tourism sector employs two million people and generates more than 10% of GDP.
Dozens of dive boats criss-cross between Red Sea coral reefs and islands off Egypt’s eastern coast every day, where safety regulations are robust but unevenly enforced.
Earlier this month, 30 people were rescued from a sinking dive boat near the Red Sea’s Daedalus reef.
In June, two dozen French tourists were evacuated safely before their boat sank in a similar accident.
Last year, three British tourists died when a fire broke out on their yacht, engulfing it in flames.