Russian Man Dies After Being Mauled by Tiger Shark in Rare Attack Near Egyptian Red Sea Resort

Anna Lazarus Caplan
·2 min read
2

Officials in Egypt said they captured the shark responsible and will try and determine a reason for the attack

<p>AFP via Getty Images</p> Waters off of Egypt

AFP via Getty Images

Waters off of Egypt's southern resort city of Hurghada

A Russian man was fatally mauled by a tiger shark off the coast of Egypt, authorities said.

The victim, who was identified by Russian news agency TASS as a Russian man born in 1999 who lived in Egypt full-time, was swimming in the Red Sea near a resort in the city of Hurghada when the attack occurred on Thursday, according to The Guardian and Reuters.

Egypt's Environment Ministry later posted on Facebook that a tiger shark was responsible for the attack and had been captured, per Reuters.

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A video circulating online purportedly shows the moment the man was attacked. In the video, horrified beachgoers looked on and could be heard screaming, as rescuers attempted to save him, according to Reuters.

“It happened in a second,” a witness told Russian station REN-TV, per The New York Post. “Rescuers reacted very quickly. For some reason, I immediately felt that it was a shark. I immediately jumped up and started shouting: ‘Sharks, sharks! Save yourself!’ Nobody understood yet.”

<p>AFP via Getty Images</p> Egypt's southern Red Sea resort city of Hurghada

AFP via Getty Images

Egypt's southern Red Sea resort city of Hurghada

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As a result of the attack, authorities closed a 46-mile stretch of coastline through Sunday, per the Associated Press. Egypt's Environment Ministry said it would try and determine a reason for the attack.

In a message, the Russian consulate in Hurghada urged tourists to stay vigilant in the water and to follow any local bans on swimming, per The Guardian.

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While tiger shark attacks are not common in the Red Sea, the area did see two such fatal attacks last year, per The Guardian. An Austrian woman and a Romanian woman were both killed last July in the same waters.

Tiger sharks rank second behind great white sharks in unprovoked attacks, according to Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File.

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