A tourist submarine sank on Thursday during a routine underwater sightseeing tour off the coast of Hurghada, a popular Red Sea resort city in Egypt, killing at least six Russian nationals on board.
The vessel, owned by a private tourism company, Sindbad Submarines, was designed to take tourists underwater to view coral reefs and marine life – a major attraction in the area.
Neither Egyptian nor Russian officials have attributed any specific reason for the vessel’s sinking, and investigations are continuing.
But the Association of Tour Operators in Russia posted on Telegram that the submarine had struck a reef about 20 metres (65 feet) below the surface of the sea and then began to lose pressure.
Water pushes from high-pressure to low-pressure regions, so if the inside of the vessel lost pressure, the likelihood of the seawater flooding in would have risen.
Despite crew efforts to surface and evacuate passengers, the vessel quickly sank at about 10am (08:00 GMT). – Aljazeera
