The Egyptian Ministry of the Environment reported on Sunday the death of two women in a shark attack near Hurghada, a famous seaside resort on the Red Sea, where several beaches have been closed since this incident on Friday.
“Two women were attacked by a shark while swimming in the Sahel Hachich region, south of Hurghada,” the ministry said on its Facebook page, saying an investigation has been opened to determine the circumstances. of this incident.
“Any activity is prohibited for three days” on the beaches in the south of Hurghada, in the south-east of Egypt, indicated Friday an order of the governor of this region of the Red Sea, Amr Hanafi.
The ministry does not specify the nationality of the victims, but, in its decree, the governor mentions “an Austrian tourist having had her left arm torn off” by a shark.
On social networks, many users shared a video – of which AFP could not verify the authenticity, date or place – showing a swimmer in difficulty before that appeared around her a pool of blood.
Sharks in the Red Sea very rarely attack swimmers if they do not exceed the authorized limits.
In 2018 a Czech tourist was killed by a shark off an Egyptian beach in the Red Sea, as was a German in 2015 and in 2010 a German woman died and four other tourists were seriously injured in attacks of sharks off a beach in Sharm el-Sheikh, the most famous of Egyptian seaside resorts.
Egypt, caught between inflation and devaluation, relies heavily on the shores of the Red Sea, which welcome 65% of tourists visiting the country.
Egyptian tourism is trying to recover from ten years of political turmoil since the “revolution” that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and the global COVID-19 pandemic.