Dozens more feared dead off Egypt coast

Rescuers brought more bodies to shore yesterday a day after a boat crowded with migrants capsized off the coast of Egypt, drowning at least 51 people.

Survivors said up to 450 migrants were on board the fishing vessel when it sank about 12 kilometres (eight miles) off the coast of Rosetta, an Egyptian Mediterranean port city, on Wednesday morning.

The military has said 163 survivors have been rescued so far, with a health ministry official saying 51 bodies had been retrieved by yesterday afternoon.

An AFP correspondent saw a military boat bringing six bodies to shore yesterday, laying them out in body bags.

One contained the corpse of a child. His grandfather recognised him and knelt next to the body, in shock.

Rescuers said search operations would focus on the boat's cold storage room where witnesses said around 100 people sought refuge as the vessel flipped over.

"The death toll is going to rise," a medical source told AFP. "On the boat there is a hold used to store fish. It hasn't been opened and there must be a lot of people inside."

The deadly accident comes months after the EU's border agency Frontex warned that growing numbers of migrants bound for Europe were turning to Egypt as a departure point for the dangerous sea journey.

Traffickers often overload the boats, some of them scarcely seaworthy, with passengers who have paid for the crossing.

On a beach near Rosetta yesterday, a small crowd gathered with some reading verses from the Koran and others desperately seeking information on relatives who may have been on board.

Many survivors were in police custody early yesterday. A prosecution official said they would be treated like "victims and not perpetrators" and would be released.

Witnesses spoke of the harrowing moment their vessel, carrying up to 450 people, keeled over due to overcrowding, as well as the agonising hours-long wait for help to arrive.