Mob Attacks Egyptian Ferry Company

Hundreds of relatives of passengers drowned on a Red Sea ferry attacked the offices of the owners Monday, throwing its furniture into the street before riot police intervened and fired tear gas to restore order.

The mob broke into the offices of El Salam Maritime in this Red Sea port early in the morning and began throwing everything out into the street. The company owned the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 which sank early Friday with the loss of about 1,000 lives.

In the port of Hurghada, about 40 miles away, a crowd outside the local hospital became angry when a line of police officers displayed photographs of those who had drowned on the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98, which went down Friday morning with the loss of about 1,000 lives.

The crowd broke through the security barriers erected in front of the hospital, but did not manage to get through the gates and enter the building. It appeared as if the relatives wanted to see the bodies of their loved ones in the hospital morgue.

Relatives in both Hurghada and Safaga - where many people have been camped out for days, waiting for news of loved ones - have complained bitterly that authorities have been slow to declare who drowned and who survived in the tragedy.

The Al-Salaam sank in the dark hours of Friday morning while sailing across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia to the Egyptian port of Safaga with more than 1,400 passengers and crew. Only 401 are known to have survived. Most of the passengers were low-income Egyptians returning from working in Saudi Arabia.

Monday, rioters took a large photo of one of the company's ferries and burned it in the middle of the road. They also tore down the company's signboard from the front of the building.

Riot police who were guarding the nearby port gates arrived on the scene and quickly dispersed the crowd. Afterward, one civilian was seen holding his head in pain. It was not immediately known how he was injured.

Some rioters set fires to tires on roads leading to the port, effectively closing the roads. But firefighters arrived and extinguished the fires.

Authorities said Saturday that rescue boats picked up at least 376 survivors from the ferry, which caught fire and sank in the Red Sea, apparently so fast there was no time for a distress signal. But more than 1,000 missing passengers and crew are feared drowned, officials said Saturday.

Transport Minister Mohammed Lutfy Mansour has said that investigators are trying to determine whether a fire, which he described as "small," led to the sinking. He also denied survivor accounts of an explosion on board.

Weather may also have been a factor. There were high winds and a sandstorm overnight on Saudi Arabia's west coast.

A spokesman for President Hosni Mubarak said the ferry did not have enough lifeboats, and questions have been raised about the safety of the 35-year-old, refitted ship that was weighed down with 220 cars as well as the passengers.

Many survivors said the fire began about 90 minutes after departure, but the ship kept going. Their accounts varied on the fire's location, with some saying it was in a storeroom or the engine room.

"Fire erupted in the parking bay where the cars were," said passenger Ahmed Abdel Wahab, 30, an Egyptian who works in Saudi Arabia. "We told the crew: 'Let's turn back, let's call for help,' but they refused and said everything was under control.

"We heard an explosion and five minutes later the ship sank," he added.

Wahab claimed that as passengers began to panic, "crew members locked up some women in their cabins." He did not explain if the women were confined as a matter of modesty or because they were causing a disturbance.

"After a while, the ship started to list and they couldn't control the fire. Then we heard an explosion and five minutes later the ship sank," Wahab said.

Bakr el-Rashidi, the governor of Egypt's Red Sea province, said that as the crew was fighting the fire, "the ship tipped over, the wind was very strong, and people moved to one side, so all of that caused the ship to sink. It happened so quickly."

Wahab, a martial arts trainer, said he spent 20 hours in the sea, sometimes holding onto a barrel from the ship and later taking a lifejacket from a dead body before he was hauled onto a rescue boat.