A Russian man has died after being attacked by a shark off the coast of the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada, officials said. The environment ministry said the man died after being bitten by a tiger shark off Hurghada on Thursday. Authorities closed a 74-kilometer (46-mile) stretch of coastline and announced it would remain closed until Sunday, banning swimming, snorkeling and other water activities.
“A tiger shark attacked a beachgoer … resulting in his death,” the department said in a Facebook post, without providing further details. A video of the alleged attack circulating online shows a man struggling in the water before being repeatedly attacked by a shark circling him before being dragged underwater.
The ministry later said it had captured the shark and was studying it in a laboratory to find out what caused the rare attack.
The Russian consulate in Hurghada identified the man as a Russian citizen, but did not disclose his name. Russian consul general Viktor Voropayev told state news agency TASS that Egyptian authorities had confirmed the death of the Russian citizen, who was born in 1999.
“The victims were not tourists, but permanent residents of Egypt,” Voropayev told the news agency. A diver who was on the scene immediately after the attack said people rushed to help the victim after lifeguards at a nearby hotel sounded the alarm, but he could not be reached in time.
Egypt’s Red Sea resorts, including Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh, are home to some of the country’s most famous beach destinations and are popular with European tourists. Divers are drawn to the steep drop-offs of the offshore reefs, which offer an abundance of colorful marine life. Shark attacks are rare along the Red Sea coast. But in 2022, Hurghada saw two deadly attacks within days, killing an Austrian and a Romanian tourist.
In 2018, a Czech tourist was killed by a shark on a Red Sea beach. In 2015, a German tourist was also killed. In 2010, a German man was killed and four other foreign tourists were injured in a series of five attacks over five days in an unusually close proximity to the coast of tourist hotspot Sharm el-Sheikh.
