Shark kills tourist and injures another in attack off Egypt’s Red Sea coast

A shark attack off Egypt’s Red Sea coast killed a tourist and injured another, authorities said Sunday, with an Italy foreign ministry source identifying both as Italian nationals.

“Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the northern Marsa Alam area, which led to the injury of one and the death of the other,” Egypt’s environment ministry said in a statement.

A source at the Italian foreign ministry told AFP the man killed was a 48-year-old resident of Rome. The injured man was 69 years old.

They were both taken to a hospital in Port Ghalib, around 30 miles north of Marsa Alam, the Egyptian ministry said.

Authorities have closed the area to swimmers for two days following the incident, which the ministry said occurred in “deep waters outside the designated swimming area.”

The Red Sea is a major tourist destination whose marine life make it popular with divers. It is also a key employer and source of foreign currency for Egypt, a country of 107 million people trying to navigate out of its worst ever economic crisis.

Last month, at least four people died when a large wave hit and capsized a dive boat carrying more than 30 tourists of various nationalities off Marsa Alam.

Deadly shark attacks are a near-yearly occurrence in Egypt’s Red Sea, where marine experts warn unregulated construction, over-fishing, and irresponsible tourism practices contribute to changing the ecosystem and shark behavior.

In June 2023, a shark attack killed a Russian man off the Red Sea resort city of Hurghada.

In 2022, two women, one Austrian and the other Romanian, were killed in shark attacks within one week off the coast of Egypt’s Red Sea.

In 2020, a young Ukrainian boy lost an arm and an Egyptian tour guide lost a leg in a shark attack in the same region. 

In 2018, a Czech tourist was killed by a shark off a Red Sea beach. A similar attack killed a German tourist in 2015.

The number of deadly shark attacks doubled globally in 2023, with a disproportionate number in Australia, according to the International Shark Attack File — a database of global shark attacks run by the University of Florida.