An oil service ship sank off the coast of Ras Ghareb, on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, killing the captain.
The Egyptian authorities and rescue personnel immediately rushed to the site of the accident, and managed to rescue 11 people who were on board the boat at the time.
The ship’s captain, Yousry Sultan, was reported drowned as he oversaw the rescue of his crew, having refused to abandon ship until all crew members were rescued. One engineer who was also on board remains missing.
The ship, named the “Inspecta 7”, was a supply ship working with an oil company, and is affiliated with a Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Wealth body in Ras Ghareb, according to media outlets.
Also on Wednesday, Iran’s largest naval ship, the Kharg, caught fire and later sank in the Gulf of Oman under unclear circumstances, semi-official news agencies reported.
The blaze began around 2:25, and firefighters tried to contain it, the Fars New Agency reported. The vessel sank near the Iranian port of Jask, some 1,270 km (790 miles) southeast of Tehran near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Photos circulated on Iranian social media showed sailors wearing life jackets evacuating the vessel as a fire burned behind them. State TV and semi-official news agencies referred to the Kharg as a “training ship”. Fars published a video of thick, black smoke rising from the ship early on Wednesday morning.
