The Navy has called of the rescue operation for the crew of a sunken fishing vessel in Marsa Matrouh. An abandoned life raft was found off the coast of Ras El-Hekma Tuesday evening. The life raft was the fourth to be found, and early Wednesday morning the search and rescue operation was officially over. According to state-news agency MENA the first three life rafts were discovered Monday evening but were all empty, which reduced the hopes of finding survivors. On Monday a fishing boat had sunk near Ras El-Hekma. The navy had been sent in to comb the area but strong winds and bad weather made the search nigh-impossible. The Freedom and Justice Party said in all there were ten fishermen present when the vessel suffered a broken propeller column and engine failure.
