Families and relatives of fishermen drowned and lost after the collision of an Egyptian fishing boat with a Kuwaiti container ship at dawn on Sunday demanded that the government retrieve the bodies of their relatives and to continue rescue operations.

In a protest organised in front of South Sinai governorate headquarters earlier Monday, the families of the fishermen criticised the slow-paced rescue efforts' to save them. 

At least thirteen fishermen drowned and fourteen with the Jeddah-bound container ship travelling from Italy. Thirteen others were rescued near Raes Gharib in the Gulf of Suez.

For the third day a navy vessel have been searching for the missing fishermen or their bodies in the sea despite the fading hope that anyone would be found alive. The navy decided on Monday to expand the search zone for 20 km. 

There were 40 fishermen allegedly on the boat.

The families insisted that there are at least 15 bodies that are still trapped in the fishing nets and boat's refrigerator. 

he general prosecution started to listen to the testimonies of the 13 survivors on how the Kuwaiti oil container collided with their shipping boat.

The Egyptian navy sent a destroyer and two other navy units to the location of the accident to search for survivors according to statements from Ahmed Fawzy, the secretary general of South Sinai governorate to Al-Ahram’s Arabic news website.