Egyptian boat sinking kills one, Suez Canal closed

ISMAILIA, Egypt, Sep 13 (Reuters) An Egyptian dredger sank in the Suez Canal today, killing one of the 40 crew and prompting the closure of the busy international waterway while a search was mounted for three others, officials said.

Suez Canal Authority and medical sources said six crew were reported to have been injured in the accident near the town of Ismailia. The dead crew member drowned, the sources said.

A Canal Authority official said the cause of the sinking in the waterway -- an important international trade route and the fastest shipping link between Europe and Asia -- was not immediately known.

The sinking was the latest in a string of Egyptian transport accidents.

Last month, 58 people were killed in the Nile Delta town of Qalyoub when two commuter trains collided in Egypt's worst railway accident in four years. A day later, 11 Israeli Arab tourists were killed in a bus accident in the Sinai peninsula.

More than 1,000 people were killed in February when a ferry sank in the Red Sea. Investigations primarily blamed the captain, who died, for not following safety procedures but public rage was directed at the ferry owner, a member of parliament.

The Suez Canal is a major source of foreign exchange earnings for the Egyptian government. Egypt nationalised the waterway in 1956.

REUTERS PDM PM0910