Egypt: Hurghada coast closed after deadly shark attacks

Local authorities have closed the Red Sea coast around Hurghada to divers and other water users following deadly shark attacks.

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Egypt’s environment ministry said on Sunday, 3 July, that two women died in shark attacks in the Red Sea off the coast of Sahl Hasheesh, south of Hurghada. The two incidents occurred last Friday and were separated by a distance of just 600 metres.

The victims are a 68-year-old Austrian national and an approximately 40-year-old Romanian national. Following the tragic incidents, local authorities closed a section of the Red Sea coastline around Hurghada and began investigating the causes of both accidents.

In an official communiqué, the ministry said that a special commission has been set up to investigate the circumstances of the attacks. The authorities want to find out what could have caused the tragic incidents and also make sure that it is safe to use the beaches. Therefore, following the fatal shark attacks, the coast in the area of both incidents was closed to tourists for at least three days.

Bystanders who were on the beach at the time of the attack recorded the incident with their phone. As a result, the animal was tentatively identified as an shortfin mako shark, Isurus oxyrinchus. It is known that the Austrian woman suffered extensive injuries as a result of the attack, lost an arm and a leg and died shortly after reaching hospital.

In recent years, there have been several incidents in the Egyptian part of the Red Sea shark accidents have occurred. So far, however, this has happened in the open sea, far from the coast.

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