Photo taken on Feb. 3, 2006 shows Safaga City Council in Egypt to which port ferry Al Salam 98, sunk in the Red Sea, headed.

An Egyptian official said Saturday that naval forces have rescued 314 people of el-Sallam 98 ferryboat which sank in the Red Sea overnight on Friday.

Major General Mahfouz Taha, director of the Authority of Red Sea ports, said some of the survivors were taken from the ferry's lifeboats, others from inflatable rescue craft dropped into the sea by helicopters, and others were pulled from the water wearing life jackets.

Four Egyptian rescue ships reached the scene Friday afternoon, about 10 hours after the 35-year-old ferry likely went down some 95 km off the Egyptian port of Hurghada.

The ship, 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.

Source: Xinhua