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 nationals.
“Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the northern region of Marsa Alam, which injured one and led to the death of the other,” the Egyptian Ministry of Environment said in a statement.
A source at the Italian Foreign Ministry told AFP that 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, about 30 miles north of Marsa Alam, the Egyptian ministry said.
Authorities closed the area to swimmers for two days following the incident, which the ministry said occurred in “deep water outside the designated 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 trying to emerge from the worst economic crisis in its history.
Last month, at least four people died when a large wave hit and capsized a diving boat carrying more than 30 tourists of various nationalities off the coast of Marsa Alam.
Fatal shark attacks occur almost every year in Egypt’s Red Sea, where marine experts warn that unregulated construction, overfishing and irresponsible tourism practices are helping to change the ecosystem and shark behavior.
Tahsin Ceylan/Anadolu via Getty Images
In June 2023, a shark attack killed a Russian off the coast of the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada.
In 2022, two women, one Austrian and the other Romanian, were killed in shark attacks within a week off the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea.
In 2020, a young Ukrainian boy lost arm and Egyptian tour guide lost leg during 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 fatal shark attacks doubled globally in 2023, with disproportionate numbers in Australia, according to the International Shark Attack File, a database of global shark attacks maintained by the University of Florida.