An Austrian woman fell victim to a shark in Hurghada, Egypt. Videos of bathers show the woman’s agony. The Red Sea beach is closed for security reasons, although such attacks are rare in the region.
Not far from the Egyptian seaside resort of Hurghada, an Austrian woman died after a shark attack. The shark approached the 68-year-old woman while she was swimming, the news channel Al-Arabija reported, citing Egyptian authorities. She suffered shock and died in hospital. The Russian agency Ria Novosti reported that the woman lost an arm and a leg in the attack. The Austrian Foreign Ministry in Vienna confirmed the death of an Austrian. According to media reports, the woman is said to have been married to an Egyptian and lived in Hurghada on the Red Sea.
Tourists watched the tragic scenes before her death from the beach and from a jetty. Video of the incident shows the woman trying to get to safety in red-dyed water. Meanwhile, men from the jetty try to pull her out of the water with a rope. The beach was closed for three days.
The Red Sea is a popular destination for divers, among others. Shark attacks are actually very rare there. However, there have also been isolated cases of deadly attacks. In 2018 a tourist from the Czech Republic died after a shark attack, in 2015 a German died and in 2010 a German pensioner died.
South Africa closed a popular holiday beach until further notice on Wednesday after a deadly shark attack. Earlier, a shark killed a man on Sanctuary Beach in the town of Plettenberg Bay, which is on the famous Garden Route. According to the National Sea Rescue Society (NSRI), the man swam several meters out to sea. It was unclear what type of shark the attack was. The video recording of a witness points to a great white shark, it said.
According to the authorities, the closure of the Sanctuary Beach and surrounding beaches is purely a precautionary measure. Almost 120 different shark species live in the waters of South Africa. Despite this, deadly shark attacks are relatively rare in the country at the southern tip of the continent. According to the International Shark Attack Database (ISAF), only 259 unprovoked shark attacks have been reported in South Africa since 1905.
