A shark mauled to death a German woman tourist snorkelling off Sharm el-Sheikh yesterday, in the third shark attack in Egypt’s popular Red Sea resort in a week, local officials said.
Mohammed Salem, director of South Sinai Conservation, said the woman died after a shark attacked her in Naama Bay, only one day after Sharm el-Sheikh reopened its beaches following two other attacks in which Russians were mauled.
“There has been a death unfortunately. She was a German lady. We have taken everyone out of the water,” he said.
Medical officials said the tourist – identified as a woman in her 70s but whose name has not yet been released – was pulled out of the water dead after the shark mauled her thigh and arm.
Tourism Minister Zuhair Garana said all the resort’s beaches had been closed to swimmers, with the exception of Ras Mohammed, a nature preserve south of the city.
The attack took place in waters facing the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
“We are getting marine biologists from abroad to assess the situation and why there was this change in biological nature,” said Mr Garana, referring to the repeated attacks, which one expert called unprecedented.
“This is unnatural. It has never happened before,” he said. “We have no explanation.”
Government conservation experts said on Friday they captured two sharks, an oceanic whitetip and a mako, which they believed had mauled two Russian women swimmers last Tuesday and Wednesday.
Government workers had dumped chum in the water to attract the sharks.
The resort’s mayor, Gamal al-Mahdi, said the beaches were reopened after authorities deemed there was no further threat off the coast, which attracts between three and four million tourists a year.
However, an Egyptian NGO warned on Saturday that at least one of the sharks thought to be behind the attacks was still at large.
South Sinai governor Mohammed Shosha has said the sharks could have turned frenzied after a ship transporting livestock dumped dead sheep into the sea, while marine experts said overfishing may have forced them closer to shore.