Moment Sindbad submarine starts to sink with tourists standing on the top deck
This is the terrifying moment panic erupted on board the Egyptian submarine that sank in the Red Sea.
The bodies of six passengers were pulled to the coast of Hurghada, a city on the Red Sea coast, after ‘Sindbad’ capsized at around 10am yesterday.
Out of the six who died, two were children and all on board were Russian citizens, according to TASS news agency.
Four other people are in a critical condition and are fighting for their lives in hospital. The cause of the incident is still unclear.
The footage shows that the submarine started to sink as tourists were getting on board and standing on the top deck.
Screams and shouts in Russian can then be heard before the video ends surrounded by water.
Anaesthetist Ravil Valiullin, 40, and his wife Kristina, 39, a children’s doctor, were killed on the vessel, while daughters – aged 10 and 15 – survived and are now in hospital.
One of the survivors, a tourist named Regina, was with her two children, nine and ten.
‘We were saved by the fact that we were on the top of the submarine, we did not have time to go inside,’ she said.
‘We were queuing at the boarding, when the submarine began to sink into the water.
‘The Egyptian who was responsible for loading shouted “Stop, stop!” but naturally no one inside heard him.
‘He shouted to us “Faster, faster, go to the pontoon” from which people were boarding.’
She told Baza media outlet: ‘We pushed the children out. I tried to swim away from the submarine. I was afraid that I would be pulled under it because of the currents.
‘I swam away, sat on the structures that were built around the pontoon so that they could moor here. From there I moved to the pontoon itself.’
Red Sea governor Amr Hanafy said yesterday that the submarine had a valid licence and that the crew had all obtained the correct certificates.
According to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, the submarine hit a reef and subsequently lost pressure at a depth of 20 metres.
The group on board had paid for a sea trip to inspect the coral reefs in the Red Sea, which is infested with sharks.
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