Red Sea sinking: Diver describes operation to find Egypt boat survivors

Mr al-Faramawy told me the rescuers had to go into the boat and open the cabin doors to get the passengers out.

“We were using torch lights to try to find our way into the darkness, it was quite a complicated mission,” he said.

“My heart goes out to the families of the dead, and I hope they will find all the missing passengers alive,” he added.

The Sea Story is largely submerged, Mr al-Faramawy said, with less than a metre of the boat still above water.

Among those he rescued on Tuesday was his 23-year-old nephew Youssef, a diving instructor.

Hussam al-Faramawy, Youssef’s father, broke down in tears the moment he discovered his son was alive.

“I couldn’t tell his mother what happened to the boat, she would have died immediately, I only told her after I realised that he survived,” he told us.

Youssef is currently receiving treatment in a local hospital.

“He was trying to save the passengers on board but got locked in one of the cabins,” his father told me in an emotional phone call.

He found it hard to describe how he kept waiting to hear a word about his son. “I could do nothing but pray to God to help my boy, and thankfully his uncle finally saved him.”