Cargo ship sinking off Egypt’s Red Sea coast

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities are scrambling to salvage the VSG Glory, a cargo ship that began sinking on Monday near the coral reefs off Quseir in the Red Sea Governorate after being stranded for 10 days, maritime sources told Reuters.

The vessel, carrying 21 crew, 4,000 metric tons of bran, 70 tons of fuel oil and 50 tons of diesel, sustained a 60-centimeter (23.6 inch) hull breach, allowing seawater to flood its engine room. Its crew has since been rescued.

Efforts to stabilize the ship have been hampered by deteriorating weather, causing the vessel to tilt further. Emergency teams have deployed additional pumps in a bid to extract the rising water.

The VSG Glory, en route from Yemen to Egypt’s Port Tawfik, heeled amidst worsening conditions.

Salvage operations led by the Red Sea Governorate and the Ministry of Environment have so far extracted 250 tons of contaminated water and fuel, but the sources say some fuel remains on board, posing a grave risk to the region's delicate coral reef ecosystem.

This marks the second maritime disaster in the Red Sea in less than a month. On Nov. 25, a tourist boat capsized near Marsa Alam, south of Quseir, leaving at least four dead and seven missing, with 33 passengers rescued.

(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed; Writing by Mohamed Ezz; Editing by Jan Harvey)

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