The incident took place at the beach known among locals as the beach of death due to frequent deaths among swimmers there, Akhbar el-Youm newspaper said.
According to the news outlet, citing the city's tourism department, ten people have drowned at the same time while trying to save a drowning child. Six bodies have been taken out of the water so far, the rest are still being searched for.
The incident took place at 05:20 a.m. local time (03:20 GMT) as the citizens tried to swim without getting caught by patrols.
All beaches in Egypt have been closed due to the pandemic except for those belonging to hotels.