Death toll rises to 52 after migrant boat capsizes off Egypt

A man reacts as rescue workers carry the body of a victim on a stretcher after a boat carrying migrants capsized off Egypt's coast, in Al-Beheira, Egypt, September 22, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

CAIRO - Nine more bodies have been recovered from the Mediterranean a day after a boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsized off the coast of Egypt, officials said on Thursday, bringing the death toll to 52.

Police arrested four members of the boat's crew. Security sources said it had been loaded with almost 600 migrants.

The boat sank early on Wednesday off Burg Rashed, a village in Egypt's northern Beheira province where the Nile meets the Mediterranean. Rescue workers and fishermen have rescued 169 people, suggesting hundreds might have perished at sea.

A survivor whose comments appeared in a video posted online said the migrants had been told that about 200 people would be on board but the smugglers had added another 50, causing the boat to founder. It was not immediately possible to verify the differing accounts, but the survivor's comments suggest fewer people might be missing than initially thought.

Prosecutors ordered that the four crew who were rescued from the shipwreck be detained for four days pending an investigation. Rescued migrants have been questioned and freed.