Shark attack in Egypt kills a Russian citizen

By Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN

(CNN) — Egyptian authorities have banned swimming near a beach at an Egyptian Red Sea resort following a deadly shark attack that killed a Russian citizen on Thursday, according to Egyptian and Russian officials.

The incident took place in the popular tourist city of Hurghada on Egypt’s eastern coast.

Russian Consul-General Viktor Voropayev told Russia state-run TASS news that a Russian national who was born in 1999 “died as a result of a shark attack.”

“This has been confirmed by Egypt’s competent authorities,” Voropayev said, as cited by TASS.

Minister of Environment, Yasmine Fouad, ordered a committee to investigate the incident, according to a statement released by Egypt’s Environment Ministry.

She also directed local authorities to implement the “highest levels of safety for those who go to the beaches of the Red Sea, and to take all possible measures to avoid a recurrence of the shark attack incident again,” the statement said.

According to the statement, a specialized team was able to capture the “Tiger shark” that caused the incident “to examine it to find out the possible reasons for its attack and to indicate whether it is the same fish that caused previous accidents.”

The Environment Ministry issued a two-day ban on swimming starting Friday, including snorkeling and all other water sports activities in the area between Gouna to the north of Hurghada and Soma Bay to its south.

Over the past years, several similar incidents have happened in the Egyptian Red Sea.

In 2022, two women were killed in shark attacks in Egypt’s Red Sea, south of the city of Hurghada, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Environment.

In 2020, a Ukrainian boy lost an arm, and an Egyptian tour guide lost a leg in a shark attack. In 2018, a shark killed a Czech tourist off a Red Sea beach,” according to the state-run Al-Ahram Online newspaper.

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