On Saturday, the Egyptian authorities closed an area of the country’s coast Overlooking the Red Seathe day after a shark attack that killed an Austrian tourist who was swimming near a resort in Hurghada.
An Egyptian health official said the 68-year-old woman, who lost a leg and an arm in the shark attack, died shortly after she was brought to a private hospital in Hurghada.
The official added that the tourist was barely alive when she was admitted to the hospital on Friday, and that attempts by the medical staff to revive her were unsuccessful.
According to an internal document issued by the Red Sea Governor’s office, the authorities decided to close the area for three days and ban all “marine activities” including diving, snorkeling and windsurfing. Fishing boats were also prevented from entering the waters off Hurghada.
A video clip circulated online purporting to show the woman being attacked by a shark relatively close to the shore, as seen from a nearby pier.
In the video, the water around the woman turned red due to the flow of blood as pedestrians on the sidewalk threw a buoy towards her. It is not yet clear how she managed to reach the shore.
The Ministry of Environment stated that three people were attacked by a shark while practicing surface swimming near the Shark Reef diving area in Ras Mohammed Nature Reserve, which resulted in injuries.
It revealed that the attacking shark is an oceanic white-fin shark, estimated at about two meters in size, and is aggressive towards humans.
Shark attacks have been relatively rare in the coastal region of Egypt’s Red Sea in recent years.
In 2020, a young Ukrainian boy lost his arm and an Egyptian tour guide lost one of his legs in a shark attack.
And in 2010, a series of shark attacks killed a European tourist and maimed several others off Sharm el-Sheikh in the Sinai Peninsula across the Red Sea from Hurghada.