Several beaches have been closed by Egyptian authorities since the recent incident.
“Two women were attacked by a shark while swimming in the Sahel Hachich region, south of Hurghada,” Egypt’s environment ministry said on Sunday, adding that an investigation had been opened.
“All activity is prohibited for three days” on the beaches in the south of Hurghada (southeast), indicated Friday an order from the governor of the region, Amr Hanafi.
The two tourists were of Austrian and Romanian nationalities.
Attacks that remain rare
Sharks in the Red Sea very rarely attack swimmers if they do not exceed the authorized limits.
In 2018 a Czech tourist was killed by a shark off an Egyptian beach in the Red Sea, as was a German in 2015 and in 2010 a German woman died and four other tourists were seriously injured in attacks of sharks off a beach in Sharm el-Sheikh, the most famous of Egyptian seaside resorts.
Egypt, caught between inflation and devaluation, relies heavily on the shores of the Red Sea, which welcome 65% of tourists visiting the country. The Egyptian tourism sector is trying to recover from ten years of political turmoil, since the “revolution” which toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, and the Covid-19 pandemic.
