Shark that killed man in Red Sea to be displayed in Egypt museum

Animal was caught and taxidermised following the incident, which prompted the closure of 60km of beaches

One of the beaches closed after a Russian man was killed in a shark attack in the Egyptian Red Sea. Reuters

A tiger shark believed to have killed a Russian man in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada on Thursday has been caught, taxidermised and will be displayed at a museum.

The shark was revealed to be a female carrying pups following an autopsy conducted by scientists from the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries.

It is unclear whether it was the same shark that killed the tourist and the seemingly retaliatory hunt has been criticised by experts.

Dr Ashraf Seddik, who was among five scientists from the institute who conducted the autopsy, said the shark was 3.25 metres long, aged eight and weighed about 500kg.

Its entrails have been removed as part of the taxidermy process, which took three hours, the institute said on Tuesday.

The carcass has been treated with salt to extract moisture and stuffed with wood shavings in preparation for display at the institute’s museum in Hurghada.

The attack has raised concerns about tourist safety in the Red Sea and resulted in the closure of a 60km stretch of beaches from the resort of El Gouna to Soma Bay.

A video clip shared widely online showed the shark after it was caught by fishermen guided by local marine experts.

One clip showed a man punching the shark on the deck of a boat.

The Russian consul general in Hurghada said the victim was born in 1999 and was a resident of Egypt.

In July last year two women, an Austrian and a Romanian, were killed in separate shark attacks 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.