A floating restaurant sank in the Nile in the city of Mansoura, north of Cairo, on Thursday evening, while hosting two parties with hundreds of citizens on board, resulting in dozens of injuries and a state of panic as people fled before it sank. Egyptian media reported that the security directorate of Daqahlia received a notification about the sinking of a floating restaurant and café in the area of Al-Mashaya Al-Sufli Street in Mansoura.
It was explained that a three-story floating boat tilted to one side in the Nile, causing a large number of citizens to be injured during the chaos of escaping before it submerged. The injured were transferred to the emergency hospital in Mansoura. Eyewitnesses confirmed that the boat was hosting two birthday parties and a wedding on the second and third floors, with over 500 people present. During their time on the boat, they felt a shaking and cracking sound, and a tilt of the boat towards the Nile, leading to a commotion and stampede as people fell over each other while trying to exit, according to "Al-Masry Al-Youm."
A number of engineers were dispatched to work on saving the boat before it sank completely, utilizing water pumps to remove large amounts of water from inside the boat and calling for a crane to pull the boat from the shore to prevent it from fully submerging in the Nile.
