MORE than two dozen people, including two Chinese, were rescued and more than a dozen remained missing Monday after Egyptian authorities said a tourist boat sank off the Red Sea coast during early morning hours.

In a statement on social media, local authorities said the regional Red Sea control center received a distress signal at 5:30 a.m. local time from a member of the Sea Story crew, a luxury yacht. The boat had 44 people on board — 14 crew members and 31 passengers from various countries, when, according to what crew members told officials, a large wave hit the ship.

The vessel set sail Sunday from Port Ghalib Marina, near Marsa Alam on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, officials said, for a diving trip scheduled to last through Friday.

The vessel had been slated to dock in Hurghada, a beach town resort about 229 kilometers north on the coast.

Search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched to the location where the 28 people had been rescued, but 16 people − four Egyptians and 12 foreigners − remained lost at sea.

The Chinese Embassy in Egypt said two Chinese tourists had been rescued by passing vessels near the site of the incident. They were reported to be in good health.

The nationalities of the missing were not immediately released, but the Red Sea Governor Major Amr Hanafi said military and navel crews continued to search for them.

Hanafi said some survivors were airlifted from the site to be treated for unspecified injuries, while others waited on rescue vessels until a military frigate arrived to transport them back to shore.

“The primary cause of the accident, according to the narratives of the foreigners and the Egyptian crew, was a high sea wave that hit the vessel and caused it to capsized, and the matter was sudden and fast where it took about 5 or 7 minutes and some passengers were inside the cabins, which is why they couldn't get out of the boat,” Hanafi said.(SD-Agencies)