Man dies and 1,200 rescued as ferry catches fire in Red Sea

A JORDANIAN man died while 1,246 other passengers and crew members were rescued following a fire aboard their ferry on the Red Sea yesterday.

The blaze had broken out earlier in the day in the ferry’s cargo section during the voyage across the Gulf of Aqaba, said Jordanian civil defence spokesman, Farid al-Sharaa.

As flames rose up into the sky, a Jordanian rescue ship reached the stricken vessel, the Pella, about 10 miles off the coast of Jordan. The rescuers managed to extinguish the blaze but an unidentified Jordanian man died after jumping into the water and fatally injuring himself, Mr al-Sharaa said.

He said 12 passengers suffered from smoke inhalation and were taken to a Jordanian hospital. The remaining 1,230 passengers – all Egyptians – were placed aboard another ferry that subsequently sailed off to Egypt, he said.

The Gulf of Aqaba, also known as Gulf of Eilat in Israel, is the northeastern tip of the Red Sea between Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Egypt has seen occasional accidents involving its ferries on the Red Sea. In 2006, about 1,000 people – mostly Egyptian workers returning home from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations – died when fire broke out on their vessel amid botched rescue attempts by the Egyptians.