As many as 197 African immigrants were killed on Sudanese regional water in the Red Sea after a boat, which had been illegally transporting them to Saudi Arabia, caught fire, the Sudanese Media Center (SMC) reported Wednesday.

"197 people from neighboring countries were killed within the Sudanese regional water at the Red Sea after their boat burned as they were illegally on their way to Saudi Arabia," SMC quoted a Sudanese government official as saying.

Brig. Meki Khader, health minister of Sudan's Red Sea State confirmed the incident, telling Xinhua "until now we do not have official figures. The information is still preliminary and we are waiting for the concerned authorities to release the final information."

The SMC said "the boat burned after four hours of sailing on the Red Sea for reasons that are still unknown."

The report quoted government officials in Port-Sudan as saying that only three of the people aboard the boat were saved and that the search was still going on for other survivors.

According to the report, the Sudanese authorities have detained four Yemeni nationals who owned the boat.

The SMC added that "the Sudanese authorities have aborted another operation to smuggle 247 people, most of them foreigners from Chad, Nigeria, Somalia and Eritrea, where they were arrested. "

In many occasions, Somali refugees attempt to get to Saudi Arabia, with the assistance of smugglers, to flee the ongoing unrest in their country. Many of them arrive first in Yemen, neighboring Somalia.