CAIRO (Updated) - Egypt's Ministry of Health emphasised on Thuesday that it received no reports of death cases in the Red Sea ferry, which caught fire early in the day, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported. "Forty ambulances had been pushed to Nuweiba and Suez ports, the Minister of Health Mohamed el-Sherbini was quoted by the MENA as saying. Egypt's Armed Forces also sent rescue teams to the passengers. A ferry with 1,230 passengers on board caught fire on Thursday shortly after setting sail from the Jordanian port of Aqaba but there been a limited number of casualties, maritime sources said. The fire broke out as the ferry was some 15 nautical miles from the Jordanian port of Aqaba, Egyptian sources said. The ferry was heading for the Egyptian port of Nuweiba and as the blaze erupted passengers were ordered to take to life rafts. El-Sherbini added that 813 passengers had been evacuated so far, adding that most passengers had been transferred to Aqaba. Nabil Lotfi, deputy chairman of Al-Jisr Al-Arabi company - the owner of the ferry - denied reports which said a person was found dead in the ferry. "All Egyptian and Jordanian travellers had been evacuated and no deaths have been reported," Lotfi told the MENA.
