Egyptian police have detained 55 young men for allegedly practicing "deviant rituals" in a boat on the River Nile in Cairo.

Quoting a Reuters report, the gay current affairs magazine, The Advocate reported that the men were celebrating a gay wedding on the boat. The five foreigners who were detained on the boat had been freed.

However, according to a report on iafrica.com, there was no mention of a wedding and instead the headline read "55 detained for holding river orgies".

The prosecutors were investigating the men for "exploiting religion for their own ends, practicing deviant rituals and holding parties where they practiced group sex and abnormal activities," said the report. It's not known if there were any women on the boat or which religion the men were "exploiting".

While Egyptian laws do not explicitly outlaw homosexuality, extra-marital sex and gay sex are taboo in the largely Muslim country.