SAFAGA, Egypt, Feb. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Egyptian Transport Minister Mohamed Mansour said on Saturday that a fire broke out in one of the storerooms of an Egyptian ferryboat that carried over 1,400 passengers before it sank overnight Friday in the Red Sea.

A survival of the Egypt ferry disaster

   However, Mansour said it was early to say the fire was the cause of the disaster before official investigation report came out.

   Some survivors told Xinhua that the fire erupted an hour and a half after the Al Salaam 98 left Dubah port in Saudi Arabia, and they saw heavy smoke flames on the ferry.

   The ship then started listing, forcing the people to go up on deck, said the survivors, adding that the Saudi port was visible at the time when the fire broke out but the captain continued to sail into the Red Sea.

   Up till Saturday morning, the number of survivors who have been rescued from the sea rose to 389, including two Saudis, Safaga Maritime Harbor Authority announced.

   A total of 185 bodies have been recovered so far, according to the latest death toll update.

   The harbor authority read the names of the survivors via loud speakers to calm down their families who have gathered at Safaga harbor waiting anxiously for any news about their beloved.

Soldiers of the security army guard at the entrance to the dock in Safaga. (Xinhua)

   Al Salaam 98, with 1,310 passengers and 104 crew members, 22 cars, 16 trucks aboard, disappeared from the radar screen shortly after it left the Saudi port of Dubah at 7:30 p.m. local time (1630 GMT) on Thursday.

   The ship should have arrived at its destination of Safaga, an Egyptian Red Sea port some 600 km southeast of the capital Cairo, at 2:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) on Friday.

   Al Salaam 98, registered in Panama, is owned by the Egyptian company El-Salaam Maritime Transport Co. and it is the second time that a cruiser owned by the company suffered a major accident in less than four months.

   Al-Salaam 95, a sister ship of Al-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