Shark hunt launched after Red Sea attacks
A shark hunt is launched off the coast of the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh after a number of tourists are injured in separate attacks carried out by the same shark.
The Egyptian authorities have reacted by banning watersports along the whole of the Sharm el-Sheikh coast in the Red Sea. It is one of the most popular areas in the world for diving, and a major destination for British tourists.
The attacks off the resort of Nama Bay came in the last 24 hours. The Head of the Egyptian Chamber of Diving and Water Sports, Hesham Gabr, said the attack took place in a safe swimming area, commonly used by tourists.
In one incident the shark inflicted serious injuries on a Russian couple – biting the man’s legs and biting the woman’s back and legs. Several divers witnessed it and raised the alarm, shouting warnings to other swimmers to leave the water.
Lone swimmer
In a second incident a lone female swimmer, also Russian, was attacked. There are other reports, unverified, that the same shark also attacked two other divers, both of whom are reported to have lost limbs.
Officials from the South Sinai National Park authority say they now have tracked the shark in question – confirming it is an adult oceanic white tip shark. They’re trying to capture it and say they will release it back into the wild in a remote area in the Gulf of Suez.
The director of South Sinai Conservation, Mohammed Salem, said such attacks were extremely rare. He claimed that uncontrolled offshore fishing could be the cause.
“That is why the sharks are forced to approach the shore in search of food,” he told one Russian news agency.
The Global Shark Attack File says the last person to have been killed by a shark in this area was a snorkeler, in 2004.