(Map source: CNN.com)

    CAIRO, Feb. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- An Egyptian cruiser carrying some 1,300 people has sunk in the Red Sea, and some of the passengers on board survived, the official MENA news agency reported.

An ambulance parks at Port Safaga in Egypt waiting for the dead and survivors from ferry Al Salam 98. [Xinhua photo]

    An official source told MENA that there is an unknown number of survivors out of the 1,300 passengers.

    Egyptian officials said earlier that the ship, Al Salaam 98,with 1,300 passengers, 22 cars, 16 trucks aboard, disappeared from the radar screen shortly after it left the Saudi port of Dubah at 7 p.m. local time (17:00 GMT) on Thursday for the Egyptian Red Seaport of Safaga.

    The ship should have arrived at 3 a.m. (1:00 GMT) on Friday,but did not, the officials added.

    Saudi and Egyptian naval vessels and helicopters have been conducting a search for the ship in the Red Sea.

    Television footage showed scenes of rough sea and officials said bad weather was apparently hampering rescue efforts.  

    Egyptian maritime officials in Suez said that bodies and lifeboats were spotted on Friday by an Egyptian helicopter near the place where the ship was last seen on the radar screen.  

    The bodies were seen in the waters off Safaga, some 600 kilometers (370 miles) southeast of the Egyptian capital Cairo.  

    There is no immediate word on the cause of the accident, but it is speculated that the cruiser might have run aground or been damaged in a collision.

    The ship is owned by the Egyptian company El-Salaam Maritime Transport Co. and most of the passengers on board are believed to be Egyptian pilgrims returning from the Saudi holy city of Mecca.  

    It is the second time a cruiser owned by the company has suffered a major accident in less than four months.

    Al-Salaam 95, sister ship of "Salaam 98", carrying about 1,250 Muslim pilgrims back from Saudi Arabia, collided with a Cypriot commercial vessel in the Gulf of Suez on Oct. 17, 2005, killing at least three and injuring dozens of others.  Enditem