At least 15 people killed in Nile ferry crash in Egypt

Thirteen people, including two children, died when their ferry collided with a cargo boat in the Nile river north of Cairo on Wednesday, security and hospital sources said. The spokesman also said 16 ambulances and two rescue boats have been dispatched to the site and the search for the missing ones is still underway, Xinhua news agency reported. 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.

People gather along the banks of the Nile River during the search for victims of a ferry boat accident on the River Nile in the Warraq area of Giza, Egypt, early July 23, 2015.

A statement by the Interior Ministry on Facebook (in Arabic) said 15 bodies had been found and six were still missing.

There are many accidents on the Nile and off Egypt’s coast each year.

In February 2006, in the country’s worst maritime accident, over 1,000 people were killed after an Egyptian ferry capsized in the Red Sea.