• The dorsal fin of the tiger shark during the attack in Hurghada, Egypt, on Thursday. Reuters
    The dorsal fin of the tiger shark during the attack in Hurghada, Egypt, on Thursday. Reuters
  • Officials closed a stretch of coastline after the killing of the Russian man, who lived in the area. The shark was later captured. AFP
    Officials closed a stretch of coastline after the killing of the Russian man, who lived in the area. The shark was later captured. AFP
  • A red flag warns swimmers that a shark has been sighted near the beach at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh
    A red flag warns swimmers that a shark has been sighted near the beach at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh
  • A file image of a tiger shark. Getty Images
    A file image of a tiger shark. Getty Images

Shark caught after Russian killed in attack off Egypt's Red Sea coast


Hamza Hendawi
  • English
  • Arabic

Latest: Sharks live in the Arabian Gulf – but are they a danger to humans?

The shark that killed a Russian man near the Red Sea town of Hurghada has been caught and is being examined by marine experts looking into the reason for the attack, Egypt's Environment Ministry said on Friday.

The ministry said a tiger shark was responsible for the attack on Thursday, saying it had been seen lurking near the surface in shallow waters beforehand.

Officials said the shark, whose capture and killing was criticised by some experts as unhelpful, was a female that may have been looking for a safe spot to give birth when it killed the 24-year-old Russian.

Authorities ordered all water activities to be suspended for 48 hours from Friday morning along a 60km stretch from the resort of El Gouna all the way south to Soma Bay.

A video clip shared widely online shows the shark after it was caught by fishermen, guided by local marine experts. One clip shows a man punching the shark on the deck of a boat.

The boat's owner, Ahmed Abbas, told a television interviewer that the shark was caught not far from the spot where the attack took place.

The Russian consul general in Hurghada said the victim was born in 1999 and was a resident of Egypt and not a tourist.

A disturbing video of the attack itself went viral on social media. It shows the shark circling the man before pulling him under the water. He surfaces before the shark takes him down again in a pool of blood.

A female voice is heard screaming “Oh, my God!” repeatedly in English as the attack unfolds. A man's voice is heard shouting for help.

Sharing the video of the Hurghada incident is harmful, malicious and damaging. It hurts livelihoods. Please stop
Naguib Sawiris,
businessman

The final segment of the clip shows a small boat arriving at the site of the attack seconds after the victim disappears under the water.

“Sharing the video of the Hurghada incident is harmful, malicious and damaging. It hurts livelihoods. Please stop,” tweeted Naguib Sawiris, the richest man in Egypt, whose family has invested heavily in high-end Red Sea resorts that attract millions of tourists every year.

Egypt's Red Sea resorts are a vital part of its tourism industry, which accounts for close to 15 per cent of GDP while employing nearly two million people.

With the country on course for its best tourism season yet, pro-government talk-show hosts sought to play down the significance of the incident.

One host, Sharif Amer, said Egypt has had only 22 shark attacks on record in more than 100 years before Thursday's incident.

Spate of attacks

Mohammed Salem, a senior Environment Ministry official, said most of these happened in the past 15 years and that the prevention of shark attacks along the Red Sea coast has been among the ministry's top priorities.

In July last year two women, an Austrian and a Romanian, were killed in separate incidents south of Hurghada. In 2020, a Ukrainian boy lost an arm and a local tour guide a leg in shark attacks. A Czech tourist was killed by a shark off a Red Sea beach in 2018, three years after a German tourist died in an attack.

In 2010, a spate of shark attacks killed one European tourist and maimed several others in Sharm El Sheikh, on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, across the Red Sea from Hurghada.

Mr Salem said the Red Sea was home to 19 shark species, all of which are known to attack people.

He said the ministry had acquired 60 tracking devices that it would attach to sharks off popular resort locations so that experts could monitor their behaviour to determine what prompts them to attack.

Link to Eid sacrifices?

Sameh Mshaly, an experienced diver in the area, has provided new insight into the recurring shark attacks.

He said these attacks appear to take place every year at the same time in the Hijri calendar because of the presence of livestock boats in the area.

“The shark that attacked the tourist was frenzied, its diet and natural feeding patterns disrupted because of these livestock boats,” Mr Mshaly said in a Facebook post.

Essam Omaria, an official at the Environment Ministry, confirmed that shark behaviour changes significally when food and waste is dumped from ships. This is especially the case in the Red Sea region.

Mr Omaria said it is crucial to understand that the marine ecosystem, which includes predatory sharks, responds to such human-induced changes in a manner that can lead to an increase in incidents of aggression.

MATCH INFO

Chelsea 0

Liverpool 2 (Mane 50', 54')

Red card: Andreas Christensen (Chelsea)

Man of the match: Sadio Mane (Liverpool)

What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women & the Food That Tells Their Stories
Laura Shapiro
Fourth Estate

RESULT

Al Hilal 4 Persepolis 0
Khribin (31', 54', 89'), Al Shahrani 40'
Red card: Otayf (Al Hilal, 49')

The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo

The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
​​​​​​​Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km

Omar Yabroudi's factfile

Born: October 20, 1989, Sharjah

Education: Bachelor of Science and Football, Liverpool John Moores University

2010: Accrington Stanley FC, internship

2010-2012: Crystal Palace, performance analyst with U-18 academy

2012-2015: Barnet FC, first-team performance analyst/head of recruitment

2015-2017: Nottingham Forest, head of recruitment

2018-present: Crystal Palace, player recruitment manager

 

 

 

 

The specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo

Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm

Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm

Transmission: 9-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km

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Sheikh Zayed's poem

When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.

Your love is ruling over my heart

Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it

Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home

You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness

Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins

You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge

You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm

Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you

You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it

Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by. 

Results

Men's finals

45kg:Duc Le Hoang (VIE) beat Zolfi Amirhossein (IRI) points 29-28. 48kg: Naruephon Chittra (THA) beat Joseph Vanlalhruaia (IND) TKO round 2.

51kg: Sakchai Chamchit (THA) beat Salam Al Suwaid (IRQ) TKO round 1. ​​​​​​​54kg: Veerasak Senanue (THA) beat Huynh Hoang Phi (VIE) 30-25.

57kg: Almaz Sarsembekov (KAZ) beat Tak Chuen Suen (MAC) RSC round 3. 60kg: Yerkanat Ospan (KAZ) beat Ibrahim Bilal (UAE) 30-27.

63.5kg: Abil Galiyev (KAZ) beat Nouredine Samir (UAE) 29-28. 67kg: Narin Wonglakhon (THA) beat Mohammed Mardi (UAE) 29-28.

71kg: Amine El Moatassime (UAE) w/o Shaker Al Tekreeti (IRQ). 75kg:​​​​​​​ Youssef Abboud (LBN) w/o Ayoob Saki (IRI).

81kg: Ilyass Habibali (UAE) beat Khaled Tarraf (LBN) 29-28. 86kg: Ali Takaloo (IRI) beat Emil Umayev (KAZ) 30-27.

91kg: Hamid Reza Kordabadi (IRI) beat Mohamad Osaily (LBN) RSC round 1. 91-plus kg: Mohammadrezapoor Shirmohammad (IRI) beat Abdulla Hasan (IRQ) 30-27.

Women's finals

45kg: Somruethai Siripathum (THA) beat Ha Huu Huynh (VIE) 30-27. 48kg: Thanawan Thongduang (THA) beat Colleen Saddi (PHI) 30-27.

51kg: Wansawang Srila Or (THA) beat Thuy Phuong Trieu (VIE) 29-28. 54kg: Ruchira Wongsriwo (THA) beat Zeinab Khatoun (LBN) 30-26.

57kg: Sara Idriss (LBN) beat Zahra Nasiri Bargh (IRI) 30-27. 60kg: Kaewrudee Kamtakrapoom (THA) beat Sedigheh Hajivand (IRI) TKO round 2.

63.5kg: Nadiya Moghaddam (IRI) w/o Reem Al Issa (JOR).

Skoda Superb Specs

Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol

Power: 190hp

Torque: 320Nm

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The biog

Most memorable achievement: Leading my first city-wide charity campaign in Toronto holds a special place in my heart. It was for Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women program and showed me the power of how communities can come together in the smallest ways to have such wide impact.

Favourite film: Childhood favourite would be Disney’s Jungle Book and classic favourite Gone With The Wind.

Favourite book: To Kill A Mockingbird for a timeless story on justice and courage and Harry Potters for my love of all things magical.

Favourite quote: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” — Winston Churchill

Favourite food: Dim sum

Favourite place to travel to: Anywhere with natural beauty, wildlife and awe-inspiring sunsets.

Who's who in Yemen conflict

Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government

Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council

Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south

Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory

Updated: June 12, 2023, 8:57 AM