CAIRO, June 11 (Xinhua) — Three British tourists went missing on Sunday morning after fire caught a boat carrying 27 people on a cruising trip off the coast near Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Marsa Alam, the Red Sea Governorate said in a statement.

Twelve out of 15 British tourists, along with 10 Egyptian crew members and two Egyptian tour guides, were rescued by another boat, “while the search for the three missing is still underway,” said the statement.

Initial investigation showed that the fire was likely caused by a short circuit in the boat’s engine room, according to the statement.

Mohamed Bendary, the Red Sea Governorate’s secretary-general, said that the accident took place off the coast of the Elphinstone area, some 25 kilometers north of Marsa Alam.

The Egyptian prosecution is currently further probing into the accident, said the statement.