A shark attack off Egypt's Red Sea coast killed one tourist and injured another, authorities said Sunday, with an Italian foreign ministry source identifying both as Italian citizens.
“Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the northern area of Marsa Alam, injuring one and killing the other,” Egypt's environment ministry said in a statement.
A source in the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told AFP that a 48-year-old resident of Rome was killed. The victim was 69 years old.
They were both taken to a hospital in Port Ghalib, about 30 miles north of Marsa Alam, the Egyptian ministry said.
Authorities closed the area to swimmers for two days after the incident, which the ministry said took place in “deep water outside the swimming area”.
The Red Sea is a major tourist destination whose marine life makes it popular with divers. It is also a key employer and source of foreign currency for Egypt, a country of 107 million people struggling to emerge from its worst economic crisis in history.
Last month, at least four people were killed by a large wave the diving boat capsized which carries more than 30 tourists of various nationalities from Marsa Alam.
Deadly shark attacks are an almost annual occurrence in Egypt's Red Sea, where marine experts warn that unregulated construction, overfishing and irresponsible tourism practices are changing the ecosystem and shark behavior.
Tahsin Ceylan/Anadolu via Getty Images
In June 2023 a shark attack killed a Russian near the resort town of Hurghada on the Red Sea.
In 2022, there were two women, one Austrian, the other Romanian died in a shark attack for one week off the Red Sea coast of Egypt.
In 2020 young The Ukrainian boy lost his arm, and the Egyptian tour guide lost his leg resulting from a shark attack in the same region.
In 2018, a Czech tourist was killed by a shark on a Red Sea beach. A German tourist died in a similar attack in 2015.
Number of fatal shark attacks doubled worldwide in 2023, with a disproportionate number in Australia, according to the International Shark Attack File, a database of global shark attacks maintained by the University of Florida.