The ship was carrying 45 people on a tour of coral reefs near Hurghada, a resort on the Red Sea.
A submarine carrying Russian tourists sank off Egypt's Red Sea coast on Thursday, killing at least six people and forcing rescuers to pull them from the water, local authorities said.
The ship was carrying 45 people on a tour of a coral reef off the coast near Hurghada, a popular resort town about 300 miles southeast of Cairo. Rescuers pulled 39 people, all foreign tourists, from the water, said Amr Hanafi, governor of Egypt's Red Sea province. All the passengers had been found, he added.
The Russian Embassy in Egypt announced in a statement on social media that four Russian tourists had died.
The vessel sank less than a mile offshore at about 10 a.m. local time, the embassy said. The submarine belonged to the Sindbad resort in Hurghada, according to the embassy. Submarine tours are popular with tour operators along a strip of resort towns and resorts to explore the area's colorful coral reefs.
The Sindbad resort owns two submarines that can dive to depths of about 25 meters, or 82 feet, according to an archive of its website seized in January. A section of the site describing the vessels appeared online early Thursday but disappeared later in the day. The vessels could accommodate 44 tourists, according to the site, along with two crew members.
Staff who answered calls to the resort's front desk said the ship that sank belonged to the Sindbad but declined to give their names. The hotel did not respond to requests for comment.
The Russian embassy said the tour was organised by Biblio Globus Egypt Tours. The company, which according to records from the Egyptian Association of Travel Agents is based in Hurghada, was unavailable and its website was down.
The vessel had a valid licence and its captain was properly trained, Governor Hanafi said.
Egypt has a history of problems with tourist boats. Britain's Marine Accident Investigation Branch last month issued a warning about safety concerns on Red Sea dive boats where passengers remain on board.
The agency's report cited 16 accidents involving such vessels in the past five years, resulting in multiple deaths. It said the vessels were often poorly designed, had substandard emergency routes or were operated by operators who were not properly trained to respond to emergencies.
Last November, four people died when a boat carrying 44 people sank during a six-day diving trip from Marsa Alam, another Red Sea resort, that was due to end in Hurghada.
Lynsey Chutel is a London-based Times reporter covering breaking news from Africa, the Middle East and Europe. More about Lynsey Chutel
