Shark attack probe following Red Sea death

The German tourist killed in the latest shark attack had been swimming near the shore at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday.

The body of the 70-year-old woman was washed onto the shore. Officials said she had lost her right thigh and right elbow.

Earlier this week at least three divers were injured in separate shark attacks.

As a result the Egyptian authorities banned water sports in the area for 48 hours.

This is highly atypical. The attacks have happened in a very short stretch of water. Dr Elke Bojanowski

The environment ministry said on Thursday that it had caught and killed the two sharks behind the attacks on the divers. But a marine NGO then said they had killed the wrong sharks.

The Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA) said that photographs of the dead sharks and pictures of the attack shark taken shortly before one of the attacks showed they were not the same fish.

One of the biologists who has travelled to the scene of the attacks is Dr Elke Bojanowski who has worked in the Red Sea for more than six years.

She told Channel 4 News she believes the same animal is responsible for all of the shark attacks: “This is highly atypical. The attacks have happened in a very short stretch of water within a short space of time.”

Scientists are now trying to gather as much information as possible about the latest attack.

Dr Bojanowski said: “We’re working with the local dive centres, there’s also exploratory diving taking place today. There are a lot of people out there looking for shark activity.”

‘Extremely rare’

HEPCA said shark attacks were “extremely rare” and warned against “randomly catching and killing” large oceanic sharks in the area.

Project Manager Urte Fiek told Channel 4 News they were horrified by the attacks: “We are of course very shocked. It’s very unusual and we are trying to find answers about what happened.

“Our experts are on their way to Sharm el-Sheikh.”

The area has been closed for all water sports.

Assistant Secretary to the Governorate, Major General Ahmed Saleh, said: “We have taken some precautions to establish tourist safety.

“Firstly we stopped swimming and snorkelling for 72 hours until a (marine) search was done and we stopped diving for 24-hours to try to prevent another accident happening here or elsewhere.”

Sharm el-Sheikh is very popular with British tourists – more than one million are expected to visit the resort this year alone.

The last death from a shark in Egypt was in June 2009, when a French woman was attacked in the leg while diving at Marsa Alam on the southern Red Sea coast.