The coast remains closed, swimming, snorkeling and other water sports activities are prohibited until Sunday.
A Russian man has died after being attacked by a shark off the coast of Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Hurghada, officials said.
The Environment Ministry said the man was killed in the waters near Hurghada on Thursday after being mauled by a tiger shark.
Authorities closed a 74-kilometer (46-mile) stretch of coast and announced it would remain off-limits through Sunday, and swimming, snorkeling and other water-based activities would remain banned.
“An attack by a tiger shark on a beachgoer…resulted in his death,” the ministry posted on Facebook, without giving further details.
A video circulating online purporting to show the attack shows a man thrashing about in the water before being repeatedly attacked by a shark circling him and then being dragged underwater.
The ministry later said it had caught the shark and is studying it in a lab to find out the reasons for the rare attack.
The Russian consulate in Hurghada identified the man as a Russian citizen but did not give his name.
Russian Consul General Viktor Voropayev told the state news agency TASS that the Egyptian authorities had confirmed the death of the Russian citizen, who was born in 1999.
“The victim was not a tourist but a permanent resident of Egypt,” Voropayev told the news agency.
A diver who arrived at the scene immediately after the attack said people rushed to the victim’s aid after a lifeguard at a nearby hotel sounded the alarm, but were unable to reach him in time.
History of Shark Attacks
Egypt’s Red Sea resorts, including Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, boast some of the country’s best-known beach destinations and are popular with European tourists. Divers are drawn to the sheer drop-offs of the coral reefs just offshore, which offer rich and colorful marine life.
Shark attacks are rare in the Red Sea coastal regions.
But in 2022, two deadly attacks occurred in Hurghada within a few days, killing an Austrian and a Romanian tourist.
In 2018, a Czech tourist was killed by a shark off a Red Sea beach. A German tourist was also killed in 2015.
In 2010, a German man was killed and four other foreign tourists injured in a series of five attacks within five days near the coast of the tourist hotspot Sharm el-Sheikh.