A pair of axled locomotive wheels, the most prominent feature of the popular Numidia wreck in the southern Egyptian Brothers islands, have disappeared after a dive boat tied its mooring line to them.

Streams of divers have enjoyed diving the Numidia, an English freighter which sank in 1901 on the northern tip of a reef fringing Big Brother island, while carrying railway materials from Britain to India.

Lying on a steep slope, wreckage is spread from a depth of just 8m to 80m. Fortunately, much of the remains lies in less than 20m of water - and the locomotive wheels were the first item divers touched down on. But now they are no more.

Simon Gardener, resident videographer on the Red Sea live-aboard Royal Evolution, has reported that the wheels disappeared after divers from another vessel tied their mooring line to the assembly.

This dislodged the wheels, which subsequently slipped away to a depth not reachable by leisure divers.