162 bodies pulled from water after migrants’ boat capsizes

to be children and women who were unable to swim away when the boat sank.

Wahdan el-Sayyed, the spokesman of the Nile Delta province of Beheira, told The Associated Press that the search operation was ongoing.

An AP reporter near the Nile Delta city of Rosetta saw 20 to 30 bodies brought in by coast guards in gray inflatable boats and fishermen in wooden boats early Friday morning and delivered to ambulances at the coast guard pier. Pictures posted on social media showed dozens of bodies lined up in black plastic bags, and others floating near wooden fishing boats. Videos showed that some fishermen were using nets to bring up the bodies.

Authorities have struggled to give accurate figures for the number of people on board the capsized vessel.

The U.N. Refugee Agency, UNHCR, estimated that the boat was packed with some 450 people, while the state news agency MENA said earlier that the number might be as high as 600.

The boat was located nearly 7.5 miles from the Nile Delta port city of Rosetta when it sank. It had waited at sea for many hours — perhaps days — for smaller wooden boats carrying migrants to arrive from different points along the Egyptian coastline. Survivors said overcrowding caused the boat to capsize.

Egyptian officials said that over 160 people were rescued and that the majority are Egyptians.