Two ladies killed in shark assaults in Egypt’s Red Sea

Two ladies, one Austrian and the opposite Romanian, have been killed in a shark assault this week off the coast of Egypt, Egypt’s surroundings ministry and the vacationers’ respective overseas ministries stated Sunday.

“Two women were attacked by a shark while swimming” within the Sahl Hasheesh space south of Hurghada on the Red Sea, the Egyptian ministry stated Sunday on Facebook, reporting that each died.

Austrian information company APA stated one of many ladies was a 68-year-old from the nation’s Tyrol area who was holidaying in Egypt.

Austria’s overseas ministry confirmed to AFP Sunday “the death of an Austrian citizen in Egypt”, with out offering additional particulars.

Citing data acquired from Egyptian authorities, Romania’s overseas ministry confirmed to AFP on Sunday “the death of a Romanian citizen” which “appeared” to have been attributable to a “shark attack” off Hurghada.

Red Sea governor Amr Hanafi had on Friday ordered the closure of all seashores within the space for 3 days after “an Austrian tourist had her left arm torn off, seemingly in a shark attack”.

Social media customers on Friday shared a video — the authenticity, date and site of which AFP couldn’t independently confirm — displaying a swimmer struggling earlier than what seemed to be a pool of blood emerged round her.

A process pressure is working to “identify the scientific causes and circumstances of the attack” and decide “the reasons behind the shark’s behaviour that resulted in the incident”, the surroundings ministry stated on Sunday.

The Red Sea is a well-liked vacationer vacation spot, the place sharks are frequent however hardly ever assault individuals swimming inside authorised limits.

In 2018, a Czech vacationer was killed by a shark off a Red Sea seashore. An analogous assault killed a German vacationer in 2015.

In 2010, a spate of 5 assaults in 5 days unusually near the shore of vacationer hotspot Sharm el-Sheikh killed one German and injured 4 different overseas vacationers.

Egypt is at the moment struggling to beat rising inflation and foreign money weak point.

The nation depends closely on tourism revenues from the Red Sea, which accounts for some 65 % of vacationers visiting the nation.

The tourism trade has been battered by successive blows over the previous decade, together with the nation’s 2011 rebellion, ensuing unrest and the coronavirus pandemic.