At least 15 people have been killed on in a crash between a cargo vessel and a passenger boat on Egypt’s River Nile.

At least 22 people drowned when a ferryboat sank in Egypt’s Nile River late Wednesday, a medical source said.

Of the 25 people on board the ferry, six passengers were rescued, the interior ministry reportedly said in a statement.

The health ministry puts the official death toll so far at 14, with four injured, state news agency MENA reported.

Eyewitnesses at the site of the accident told Xinhua that rescue boats and divers are working to search for the missing ones. Abdel-Ghaffar said only 12 bodies have arrived in the morgues of hospitals nearby. It is unclear whether the engaged couple was among the dead.

Nile traffic has been heavy, especially near Cairo, as Egyptians celebrated the Eid al-Fitr holiday following the holy month of Ramadan.

The skipper of the barge has been arrested and will be detained for four days pending investigation into the incident, Al-Ahram reported.

In the worst such accident in February 2006, an Egyptian ferry sank in the Red Sea, killing more than 1,000 people.