At least 29 undocumented migrants drown off Egypt coast

CAIRO

Dozens of people drowned after a boat carrying hundreds of undocumented migrants sank off Egypt’s northern coast, Egyptian officials announced Wednesday.

"At least 29 people died and another five were injured after their boat sank off the port city of Rashid in Egypt’s Beheira province," the Health Ministry said in a statement.

According to Ahmed al-Ansari, head of the ministry’s ambulance authority, the dead and injured are being taken taken to nearby hospitals.

Major-General Aladdin Shawky, head of Beheira’s security directorate, said the boat had set out from Egypt’s Kafr al-Sheikh province with more than 300 undocumented migrants aboard before sinking off the coast of Rashid.

Egypt’s state-run media had earlier reported that at least 600 people had been aboard the ill-fated vessel.

*Reporting by Mohamed Mahmoud; Writing by Ali Abo Rezeg